The Islington man’s place has been confirmed by the ‘Considerate Constructors’ non-profit scheme in the construction industry, which ran a nationwide search to find the UK’s longest-serving builder — and Norman came out as the grandfather of them all!
Norman is still going strong after 80 years in the trade, getting up each day at 6.30am to commute to his offices at Henry Hardy builders in Canonbury, eight decades after his first day in the job.
“I have cement in my blood and will never retire,” he tells you. “It motivates me to keep going. I haven’t lived if I don’t learn something new every day.”
Norman still inspects construction sites and even climbs scaffolding to oversee projects himself — an inspiration at a time when the building industry faces a recruitment crisis.
Norman actively encourages today’s school-leavers into the trade. Only one-in-ten construction workers are under 25 while a fifth are over 50.
The industry has already lost nearly a million workers since 2019 alone, from three million to just two million by the end of 2024. It is essential that young people are encouraged to replace them, Norman insists.
“It breaks my heart that there are thousands of young people on the dole who would make excellent builders — if they were only given the chance,” he says.
He has campaigned over the years for more ‘quality’ apprenticeships to avoid the trade “simply disappearing because there are no craftsmen left”.
It was a 17-year-old Norman Barrs who completed his plumbing and heating training back in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, and began working for his family’s business.
London was littered with bomb sites as the long road of post-war reconstruction began.
But it wasn’t an easy start as a teenager growing up in Kentish Town.
“I was the biggest rebel in Kentish Town when I was 14, according to my father,” Norman recalls. “I had difficulty reading and writing. I just loved making things, cutting things up.
“Dad took me to the Northern Polytechnic in Holloway and they took me on since he was part of the wartime London Heavy Rescue department. I never looked back.”
Norman embodies “the very best of British construction” say the organisers of the Considerate Constructors’ scheme.
He has “adaptability and a commitment to build a better future”, living proof that construction is a lifetime career that’s always in demand “as the backbone of the economy”.
The Barrs’ family legacy continued through Norman’s son Graham, a master painter-decorator now retired, and now with 25-year-old grandson Nick Dodson who has followed in Norman’s footsteps.
Nick runs his own plumbing and drainage business in Enfield, which he started when he was just 20 and now has a fleet of seven vans and workforce of nine — inspired by Norman’s 80 years as a master builder.
