In December, stove company Aga bought fireplace surrounds firm Elgin & Hall - and immediately became acquainted with those self-appointed custodians of Cotswold stone, Farmington.

Aga\'s sin was to send out a publicity notice about the takeover in which they pictured one of Elgin & Hall\'s fire surrounds and described it as being made from Cotswold stone, when it was in fact a resin-based reconstituted cast product.

Farmington\'s managing director, Martin Robins, was not about to let the gauntlet lie. He picked it up and took it straight to The Daily Telegraph, who duly published the story in January.

They quoted Robins as saying: "We take a natural material out of the ground, carve it up and ship it out. Theirs is resin, which comes out of a mould, and they paint it up."

He told NSS: "Because customers are increasingly demanding natural products some businesses are pretending their products are natural stone. It is most misleading."

Following the complaint, Aga agreed to alter their publicity material to say "Cotswold stone finish".