After a three-year break to work on stonemasonry projects in France, Simon Armstrong has rejoined the board of Wells Cathedral Stonemasons in Cheddar, as the company experience what managing director Peter Arkell describes as the "strongest period of growth in our 25-year history". Having qualified as a bio-chemist, Simon, who is 38, made a career-change and took a full-time masonry course in Bath before joining Wells Cathedral Stonemasons in 1994 to complete his craft training. By the time he left for France, eight years later, he had been made a director of the company. "I took my family on a three-year break in France to work on historic restoration projects in Normandy and the Loire Valley," he says. But I missed the wide range of projects at Wells Cathedral Stonemasons - from church restoration to new buildings and exciting overseas contracts.