Our building stone has been much used throughout Wessex, the West Country, and the Cotswolds for the last few centuries for natural stone walls. It is cut and hand dressed to provide ready to use walling stone, that is easy to lay and build with.  It is an attractive mottled, brown grey buff colour that is very hard and durable.  This makes it frost and water resistant and so ideal for exposed locations or where there is water.  It can be used for building houses, renovations, extensions, retaining walls or free-standing walls. Today it is used a great deal in many beautiful and distinct buildings throughout the UK.

Our local building stone was formed over the last 140 million years, through compression of shells and fossils since the Jurassic age, when a region from Oxfordshire through to the Cotswolds (Gloucestershire and Wiltshire), Somerset and down to the Dorset coast was a shallow tropical sea near to the equator.  

The stone is full of interest, fossilised shells can be seen in every piece of stone, colour and has incredible natural durability and strength.  

Whether the build is following the vernacular, or ultra-modern, or a mix, this local building stone will add colour and texture to the building, reflecting the 140 million years it took to form. All of the stone has fossils and other interesting features within it, these are clearly visible on close inspection. This natural stone product does not need any extra weather protection or care as it is naturally very resilient, very hard wearing, and weather resistant.  

This is why it is considered such an iconic building stone throughout the Cotswolds, and the West Country. In the central England it is known as Cotswold building stone and is found in pretty towns and villages such as Burford, Stow-on-the-wold, Cirencester, Shipton Moyne, Chipping Norton, Chippenham, Tetbury, Corston, Bath, Chipping Sodbury, Corsham, Sherston, Yate, Malmesbury, Oxford, Somerford, Northleach, Cheltenham, Melksham and Sherston. Further south it is often known by the individual town or village it is used in or the widely recognised Forest Marble building stone.

The natural building stone is cut 6 inches on bed (width) and the height ranges from a couple of inches to about 6 inches. Building with stone has never been easier, with it cut and dressed to size. There are about 3.5 square metres to a tonne.

At present we are sending frequent building stone deliveries out to Tetbury, Somerford, Malmesbury, Stow, Melksham, Cirencester, Bath, Northleach, Long Newnton, Chippenham, Corston, Chipping Norton, Badminton, Corsham, Bristol, Shaftesbury, Bruton, Beaminster, Bridport, Longburton, Stourton Caundle, Yetminster, Milborne Port, Horsington, Cucklington, Bourton, North Cheriton, Charlton Horethorne, Wincanton, Cucklington, Windsor, Evershot, Powerstock, Trowbridge, Sturminster Newton, Hungerford, Chard, Chipping Sodbury, Castle Combe, Acton Turville, Yate, Stow-on-the-world, Bradford-on-Avon, Devizes, Frome, Wells, Taunton, Exeter, Wraxall, Mells, Mendips, Beaminster, Burford, Yeovil, Dorchester, Stroud, Dursely, Radstock, Cheddar, Box, Neston, Cheltenham, Shepton Mallet, the Mendips, Winchester, Andover, Frome, Basingstoke, Reading, Salisbury, Sherborne, Bournemouth, Swindon, Southampton, Poole, London as well as the rest of the UK. 

When building a natural stone wall, a lime based mortar should always be used. The lime has a degree of elasticity as well porosity, enabling the stonework to breathe and adjust with the changes of temperature and moisture. Furthermore, the lime is soft and so critically does not grip the stone. The lime based mortar, when mixed with yellow sand and stone dust, provides a gentle natural colour to the stone wall, enhancing it.

Straight cement mortar on the other hand is non porous, is hard and brittle. Therefore over time it retains moisture, and will crack as the building minutely adjusts over time. The cracked cement is then difficult to remove without damaging the actual stone itself.   

This local building stone material is extensively used in the stone buildings and natural stone walls of villages and market towns throughout the West Country from Somerset, the Mendips, Dorset and Wiltshire and upto the Cotswolds and beyond to Oxfordshire.  

The building stone from our quarry has been produced from fossilised shells, and sea organisms that have been crushed and compressed for about 140 million years from the Jurassic age to today. That is why the stone is one of the hardest in the world.

Throughout the stone, the shells and organisms are clearly visible providing interest and variation within the stone. This interest and variation reflects itself in any wall or building with a mottled effect of buffs and browns.

No man-made material can ever replicate the 140 million years of manufacture, natural history and fossil record within the stone.  

The stone provides a connection with the natural world, adding subtlety, elegance and beauty to a building. What ever the style of the building, if it is architected and constructed effectively it will compliment and thrill.