Memorial masons Ross Stoncraft in Slough, Berkshire, have been bought by two other retailers and a lettercutter. Moya Harvey, whose business it was until she sold it to Corby memorial wholesalers F W Bull & Son seven years ago, remains as the manager.

F W Bull & Son decided to pull out of the memorial market last year (see NSS November issue) to concentrate on the more profitable construction sector of their stone business, although in January this year they had the misfortune of appearing on television\'s Watchdog programme, when three customers complained about the memorials and the service they had received from the company.

Ross Stonecraft have now been bought by Mick Gattrell of Creative Memorials in High Wycombe, Neil Dickens, who owns Hobbs of Maidenhead, and Andrew Series, a freelance lettercarver who has worked for the other two and now has a workshop at Ross Stonecraft.

They have formed a company called Ross Stonecraft UK Ltd, which has applied to join the National Association of Memorial Masons of which Moya has been a leading light for many years.

Moya complained that the Ross Stonecraft premises, ideally situated next to a cemetery, had not been decorated in the seven years that they had been owned by Bulls. The first thing the new owners have done has been to paint them, changing colour from pink to pale lemon.

Moya, who has worked at Ross Stonecraft since 1946 and inherited the business from her father when he died in 1966, says she had considered buying the business back herself, but with her husband, Alan, now 74 (although still working in a pharmacy) they had decided they did not want the financial commitment.