Lovell Stone Group has a new Basebed seam of Bath Stone from its Hartham Park underground quarry in Corsham, just outside Bath in Wiltshire. It is identified as Hartham Park Bath Stone T2 Basebed.

Lovell Stone Group says it had been prospecting for a bed of Bath Stone more suited to the application of exposed weathering courses and in 2020 undertook extensive core sampling at Hartham Park to investigate the potential of the lower tiers of stone. Preliminary test data provided encouraging results.

Over the past six months Lovell Stone Group has invested in major mine development work at Hartham Park and has developed a prototype chain to enable the efficient cutting of the hard T2 Basebed using a Fantini chainsaw.

An initial 50m³ of block extracted has been processed in-house at the Lovell Stone Group works, which has given the Company an excellent understanding of yields, quality and expected finished bed heights.

Many samples have been submitted to Sandberg for comprehensive testing and a full suite of test data is now available. The results show a hard, durable Bath Stone with good shell content. It exceeds the performance of other Bath Stones currently available when tested to 56 freeze thaw cycles in accordance with BS EN 12371:2010.

The Hartham Park T2 Basebed is available in a consistent block height of 850mm, yielding 750mm high when finished. Lovell promise it will be competitively priced for the market. “We have good availability of the block in stock and samples are available on request,” says Managing Director Simon Hart.

At the same time, Tom Waddington has joined Lovell Stone Group as Executive Director. His role will be focused on growth consolidation and supporting the delivery of the Group’s strategic aims.

Previously with Tarmac Building Materials, Tom has extensive corporate and general management experience at Director level in the construction materials sector. His career has spanned positions in production, commercials/sales, product development and logistics.

On his appointment, Tom said: “I am pleased to be joining Lovell Stone Group at this exciting time. The team is passionate about providing their customers with premium British stone products and I’m looking forward to working with them and our customers as we continue to develop our offer.”

Simon Hart says: “Our performance and market conditions have provided a platform for us to continue to develop the business. Tom’s appointment is a key component of our strategy and we look forward to him joining the team.”

Below. Adrian Boniface, Command Supervisor at Hartham Park, with blocks of the new T2 Basebed.