Friend's tribute to modest Derbyshire man who co-founded B&Q retail empire yet was inept at DIY

A Derbyshire man who co-founded the largest home improvement company in the UK despite lacking a talent for DIY has died at the age of 80.
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Richard Block spent the last years of his life in Wirksworth and was described as a modest man by his friend Geoff Lester. Geoff said: “He was interested to talk about many things, but didn’t mention B&Q unless asked.”

More than half a century ago when few people regarded DIY as a hobby, Richard and his brother-in-law David Quayle took the plunge and set up their business with the help of a bank loan.

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They opened their first shop in a former furniture warehouse in Southampton in 1969. The business was originally called Block and Quayle but shortened to B&Q when the founders noticed the name was abbreviated on delivery notes and invoices.

Richard Block, co-founder of the B&Q empire, lacked DIY skills (photo courtesy of B&Q).Richard Block, co-founder of the B&Q empire, lacked DIY skills (photo courtesy of B&Q).
Richard Block, co-founder of the B&Q empire, lacked DIY skills (photo courtesy of B&Q).

The pair worked more than 60 hours a week, made deliveries in their own cars at night and repaid their bank loan within the first six months. A year later they opened a second shop in Portsmouth. Within five years the business achieved a £1m turnover.

Richard left the business in 1976 to grow tomatoes in the Channel Islands and put his shares into the firm’s pension fund. David stayed on for another four years before selling B&Q to Pater Noster, by which time there were 26 stores across the country. When David died in 2010, he left £4.4million to his family.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror in 1998, Richard’s wife Mary revealed that her husband was inept at DIY. He had tried to put a handle on a door and it hadn’t worked so he removed the handle and left a hole in the door for a year.

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Richard became a nutritional expert in later life, running a clinic specialising in remedial therapy from his home in Middleton by Wirksworth.

Richard Block, left, and David Quayle, founders of the B&Q home improvement retailers (photo courtesy of B&Q).Richard Block, left, and David Quayle, founders of the B&Q home improvement retailers (photo courtesy of B&Q).
Richard Block, left, and David Quayle, founders of the B&Q home improvement retailers (photo courtesy of B&Q).

Geoff said: “Richard’s interests lay in exploring many things, especially concerning health and alternative therapies, and he trained and practised for some time in hypnotherapy and massage. Always interested in food science, he went regularly to Shothouse Spout near Winster, to fill containers with natural drinking water, because he didn’t trust what came out of the tap.”

For more than a decade, Richard was a volunteer at the Wirksworth-based charity Aquabox where he was part of a team assembling filter pumps to be sent to disaster zones where clean water was not available. Donations in Richard’s memory will be gratefully received at www.aquabox.org.

Richard was also a member of Wirksworth’s community singing group Raise Your Voices for a number of years.

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