North West Lead Scoop 2010 Murdoch Award and M & I Lead take the 2010 Sponsors Award back to Ireland

The winners of the 2010 Murdoch Awards – the ultimate accolade for excellence in leadwork - have just been announced by the Lead Contractors Association.

Guests were able to preview photographs of the 21 entries for this year’s Murdoch Award and Murdoch Sponsors Award at a pre-dinner reception hosted by Jamestown Metals which traditionally marks the end of the LCA Annual Conference.

The Award was launched in 1996 on the retirement of Richard Murdoch, Senior Technical Officer of the Lead Sheet Association and author of the “Lead Sheet Manuals”.  

The Murdoch Award, which since 2005 has been sponsored by Associated Lead Mills, is an annual competition among members of the Lead Contractors Association to determine the best leadwork project of the year – effectively the best of the best in leadwork. In 2006 Associated Lead Mills also introduced the Murdoch Sponsors Award for the smaller project (less than 5 tonnes)

A panel of judges view entries from all over the country (and beyond) in the most minute detail before determining the winner of the Sponsors Award and the three finalists of the Murdoch Award from whom the eventual winner is selected.

Guest of Honour at the 2010 Conference Dinner was Richard Murdoch himself, who announced that the judges had decided the winners of the 2010 Murdoch Sponsors Award were M & I Lead of Dublin for their leadwork at Oakfield Park, County Donegal.

Ian Whelan and David Bell received the Sponsors Award from Graham Hudson, Managing Director of Associated Lead and were delighted to receive such early recognition for the quality standards of their workmanship, having only joined the LCA the previous year.

Richard then welcomed representatives from the three Murdoch Award finalists of the 2010 competition, D Blake & Co (Greenlaw Community Pavilion, Scotland), North West Lead (Dewsbury Town Hall) and Richardson Roofing (Cardiff Museum). He provided a brief insight into each project before announcing that the winner of the 2010 Murdoch Award was North West Lead for their work at Dewsbury Town Hall.

In receiving the Award, Managing Director Steve Hempstock said how proud he was to have won the Murdoch Award for the first time and paid tribute to the efforts of his on-site team, which he was delighted to have rewarded with the ultimate accolade for leadwork.