finding the right stone

 

We encourage our clients, when they wish, to be fully involved in all stages of a restoration project including, in this case, finding new stone to match the surviving primary fabric exactly.

This is always difficult when more than the usual basic matches are required by the architect or client. The local quarries that once provided magnesian limestone to build monuments like this are worked out landfill sites today.

Although the same geological type is still quarried in the area, different beds with different characteristics are being worked today.

 

Much therefore depends on the bed or face the quarry happens to be working and on the goodwill of quarry managers who, after all, run a commercial extraction business not a stone-matching service. Nevertheless, with goodwill and the right timing some perfect matches can still be found if you know where to look.

 

 

Happy to find and reserve the right batch for this very particular project are (left to right) client representative, quarry manager, architect, contractor, and Giles Proctor of English Heritage.

This small case study shows the importance of local knowledge in the deployment of local materials and craft skills. The conservation architect uses that knowledge and experience as a conductor, and sets the parameters of the teamwork essential for the best results, but ultimately these depend on workmen and workmanship. For this reason we asked our clients to give their Stone Federation Award for this project to the masons. Our clients readily agreed.