It is an indication of the esteem in which the Stone Federation GB Natural Stone Awards are held that the Awards lunch in London\'s Shaw Park Plaza Hotel was full to its 300-seat capacity and people who were late trying to book had to be turned down.

Among those sitting down to lunch were HRH Prince Michael of Kent, who had presented the Awards at the preceding ceremony and officially announced the stone industry\'s Hallmark Scheme, which will come into operation in January.

Also on the top table was TV personality Tommy Walsh from the BBC\'s Groundforce programme.

The two-yearly Awards are the highlight of the Stone Federation Calendar and this year saw 28 buildings across the UK recognized in the scheme. The full results and details of the projects appear in the Awards brochure bound in to the center of this issue of Natural Stone Specialist.

As far as masons are concerned, the top award is that for Excellence in Craftsmanship, which this time went to Cathedral Works Organisation (CWO), based in Chichester, Sussex.

The winning entry was the 7-tonne capital on a new column in Paternoster Square, London.

The magnificent silver trophy was collected by CWO carver-mason Brenda Aldridge, who had single-handedly produced the winning capital from the 11-tonne block of sawn-six-sides Coombefield Whitbed Portland limestone supplied by Hanson Bath & Portland to CWO. And this was just one of four CWO projects to be recognised in the Awards.

Stone Federation President Mike Moody opened the Awards presentation ceremony with thanks to the Building Crafts College for having produced the stone trophies presented to the winners and Stone Productions for the slate plaques given to highly commended and commended projects.

Moody said the use of stone in the modern world was greatly influenced by advances in processing and design and quoted Brian Wilson, the Construction Minister, when he said "best value is the hard option".

He said the stone industry was intent on achieving 100% registration with CSCS by the deadline of December 2003 and was introducing the Hallmark scheme, which had been four years in development.

Prince Michael, who was later presented with a Cumbrian slate cigar box by Mike Moody, praised the Stone Federation for having worked tirelessly to bring the Hallmark to fruition.

He said he had a passion for stone and lived in a house in the West Country built of Cotswold stone. "Many people in Britain today are working towards achieving buildings of beauty again," he said. "We have builders of quality who are at least as important as the designers who so often eclipse them."

The judges of the Stone Awards are five distinguished architects. Their chairman is John Burton. He said: "Those that haven\'t won take heart because this was the highest quality work we have seen for a long time."