Cornwall has huge pieces of granite just lying around in fields. Most farmers would like to see the back of them, so when John Sutherland offers to remove them he is normally welcomed.

Now, as Cornish Landscaping Granite, he has made a business out of supplying these hefty lumps of granite for landscaping projects. The pictures here show a piece 7.4m long and weighing 20tonnes that he delivered the week before Christmas.

It is to be worked by Gordon Young, a sculptor who specialises in public art, and then set up on end at York University as a monument to mezzo-soprano singer Dame Janet Baker.

Cornish Landscaping Granite works closely with designers to supply these weathered stones that are normally used to make simple and pleasing statements. Even without any work on them their powerful sculptural qualities carry a presence, depth and sense of permanence in a fast changing world. They are available in almost any size up to the maximum that can be transported and come ready coated in the natural lichen and moss that has grown on them in the fields.

The variety of size and form available makes them eminently suitable for imaginative use in natural play spaces, such as Willerby Landscapes’ BALI-winning project this year, designed by James Corner. It uses 16tonne Cornish Landscaping Granite boulders, lightly squared and dressed before delivery, as a granite climbing feature.