The Murdoch Award – How it’s won and who decides

Every member of the Lead Contractors Association can submit an entry for the Murdoch Award. There are no restrictions with regard to size, value or geographic location (as well as areas across England, previous winning entries have been from Northern Ireland, Scotland and France).

Although the Murdoch Award is now sponsored by Associated Lead Mills, this does not restrict entries to users of their products and the competition remains open to all users of rolled lead sheet to BSEN 12588 or sand cast sheet from an approved manufacturer.

Members firstly submit photographs of their project together with details of the site to the judging panel through the LCA secretariat. Most of the projects submitted are then subjected to on-site scrutiny by a member of the panel, requiring hands on access to the roof areas, some of which may be required to be lifted in order to provide access to the fixing detail. Further photographs of key areas are taken and a meeting of the judging panel is convened to consider the further findings of each vetting.

On occasion a second visit to site may be required in order to clarify a borderline detail. A short list of upto four finalists is then drawn up and the company principals are notified and invited to attend a presentation dinner.

Immediately prior to the presentation dinner, the judging panel will reconvene to consider the four final entries and decide upon the overall winner. Richard Murdoch himself is often involved in this final selection stage which re-considers in depth all the on site reports and photographs.

The winner is then announced at the Dinner and presented with the Murdoch Award Silver Salver which will be engraved and retained by them for one year. They also receive a silver replica to keep, and each finalist receives a hand produced personalised parchment scroll commemorating their achievement.

The four finalists attend the presentation dinner as guests of Associated Lead Mills, who, since 2005 have sponsored the Murdoch Award. As a further part of their sponsorship, Associated Lead Mills provide a champagne reception prior to the dinner at which photographic displays of all the Murdoch Award entries are available for scrutiny by the delegates attending the annual LCA conference.

Although keen to actively support the Murdoch Award and the Lead Contractors Association, Associated Lead Mills play no part in the decision making process that selects the finalists or determines the overall winner.

That responsibility is taken on by the Murdoch Awards Committee of LCA Council, a Committee that currently comprises Mr Alistair Rae (D Blake & Co), Mr Ian Harvey (Marshott Non Ferrous Roofing), Mr Steve Hempstock (North West Lead) and Mr Phil Turner (Exe Valley Services), co-ordinated by LCA Consultant Mr Peter Rutherford. When available, Mr Richard Murdoch himself will play an active role in determining the technical merit of the entries submitted.

If any of these Council Members have projects which are being considered, they take no part in the decision making process that determines the finalists, or if they are a finalist, in determining the overall winner.

New from 2006 – The Murdoch Sponsors Award

For the first time the smaller specialised project has been specifically recognised by the judging panel considering the 2006 entries for the Murdoch Award. At the request of the sponsors, Associated Lead Mills, the judges were required to give consideration to the many smaller projects that were submitted last year and to select the best, to be presented with the “Murdoch Sponsors Award”.

“I wanted the smaller business to be recognised” said Associated Lead’s Managing Director, Graham Hudson. “It’s quite right that the Murdoch Award must go to what the judges consider to be the best job, but invariably this means the large, eye-catching projects that require expert attention to detail over a large area”

“Often these projects involve teams of people, trusted with the responsibility of showing off leadwork at its very best and to achieve consistent excellence in every aspect of a large roof demands skills and supervision at the highest level. So, quite rightly it has been these types of project which so far have been recognised by the judges” he continued.

“However, these tend to overshadow the smaller projects, which although perhaps less eye-catching, can involve just as much detail and demand just as much skill, knowledge and expertise but perhaps only involve one or two people in the design and installation.”

In creating the Murdoch Sponsors Award, Associated Lead Mills hope to encourage more LCA craftsmen to submit the smaller special project in future Murdoch Award competitions.

First Winner

The first winner of the Murdoch Sponsors Award was Vince McKee, who runs V McKee Plumbing from Maidstone in Kent. Vince was featured in the 2006 Directory illustrating the benefits of prefabricating off site and he again put this practice to good effect for his 2006 Murdoch Award entry.

The dilapidated vicarage at East Farley is a 19th Century cottage which has a multi-pitched roof with dormer windows. Designing and installing a wide variety of detailing in Codes 4, 5, 6 and 7 was, in the words of one Murdoch Award judge, “more like a work of art than a lead installation”. Vince was required to work closely alongside the slater on the project to ensure the integrity of both slating and leadwork were protected throughout.

Vince was delighted to be the first winner of the Murdoch Sponsors Award, presented by Dick Murdoch himself at the 2006 Conference Dinner. “It’s great to see the small company recognised” said Dick when presenting the Award to Vince “because there are a lot of them and that’s how most of today’s big companies started off.”

Mr Richard Murdoch

In 1996 Dick Murdoch finally stepped back from an active role within the lead industry.

During his time firstly as senior Technical Officer with the Lead Development Association and then the Lead Sheet Association and latterly in a consultancy role to the Lead Contractors Association, Dick had for many years been the industry’s most vigorous campaigner for quality standards in leadwork design and application.

“Mr Lead” literally wrote the book – in this case the Lead Sheet Manuals – the three comprehensive Volumes, now combined into “Rolled Lead Sheet – The Complete Manual” which forms the ultimate consultancy document in determining how lead sheet roofing applications should be designed and fitted.

Dick also orchestrated the LCA’s Annual Technical Seminar and used the occasion to continually harangue LCA members over their responsibilities to their client and their craft. He visually demonstrated the pitfalls to avoid and the disastrous effects of getting it wrong, as well as proudly showing off examples of work that he considered fitted the status of being an LCA member.

Such was his contribution to the modern day recognition of the leadwork craft, upon his retirement the Lead Contractors Association set up and sponsored, in his honour, the Murdoch Award.

The Murdoch Award is presented in recognition of technical excellence in leadwork, as demonstrated by an LCA member by way of a particularly prominent or complex project. Drawn from a short list of recommendations, the project is subjected to a vigorous on-site inspection and every aspect of the design and installation may be scrutinised by Dick himself, before the award is confirmed.

Winning the Murdoch Award therefore very much represents the ultimate accolade for technical excellence in the leadwork craft.