R Arnott & Sons Ltd was founded by Ralph Arnott & his wife Doreen in March 1962 & originally called Domestic Heating (Newcastle) Ltd. It soon became apparent whilst the company was set up to serve the domestic housing marketplace that the company was better suited to the commercial market & within 2 years the company changed its name to R. Arnott & Sons Ltd.

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Ralph’s first order in business was for a new-build Working Men's Club with the Federation Breweries working hand in hand with a Building contractor named Victor Dillon Ltd. (Victor many years on became the Chairman of the Federation Breweries). This partnership lasted for nearly two decades & there was hardly a club in the North East of England that Arnotts did not have an input into. At the same time as all the Club work was undertaken the company had numerous service contracts for the Ministry of Public Buildings & Works carrying out boiler servicing & minor repairs throughout the Northumberland & Durham areas in all the various government departments & buildings catering for all service work on steam, oil,  and what was a new innovation, town gas boilers. This coupled with a thriving housing market led to the companies original expansion. As the workload grew additional staff were sought & Tom Lee was appointed as manager of the plumbing division whilst Brian Tait was appointed heating manager. Tom Lee was with the company for nearly 40 years until his retirement & Brian Tait moved on after 6 years to further his career as a Consulting Engineer.

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In the mid to late 1960’s Ralph's sons Ken & Trevor joined the company straight from school to take up their respective careers in the mechanical services & plumbing fields. Both attended Charles Trevelyan Technical College & gained training as well as qualifications which would serve them well later in life. As work in the Working Men's Clubs declined efforts were channelled into securing work for new build schools, factories & other areas, working for organisations such as Newcastle City, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside & Sunderland Councils as well as Vickers Armstrong & Winthrop Laboratories.

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R Arnott & Sons Ltd tendered for the Measured Term works to look after maintenance & installations in all government buildings throughout Northumberland & Durham & were the 1st M & E contractors outside of inner London to hold such a mechanical contract. At this stage Arnotts had a workforce of nearly 50 outside staff & 8 Office staff which continued for 13 years that they held the MTC with staff working 7 days per week in the likes of DHSS Benton, Durham House in Washington, Dunn House in Sunderland as well as RAF Site Boulmer & Albemarle Barracks at Ouston.

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Ralph Arnott retired through ill health in the mid 1980’s & Trevor Arnott was appointed as Managing Director & Ken Arnott as Chairman. Ken and Trevor continued to run the business up until selling to the Northumbrian Property Services Group Limited in January 2018. Trevor remains with the business full-time at present, providing continuity to customers through the transition to the business' new owners.