The restoration of the spire of St Gregory\'s Church in Cheltenham was Somerset Stone Masons\' highest achievement - quite literally, at more than 60m above the ground it is the tallest building in Cheltenham.

At £500,000 it was also the biggest project they had ever won. And now it has also gained them a Civic Award for restoration.

They have worked on the Roman Catholic church before and seven years ago received a commendation in the Civic Awards Scheme for their work. This time, they won the Award itself.

It was the architect, Simon Radford, who entered the work for the Award. Somerset Stone Masons were on site for eight months working on the tower and spire, the top 8m of which were leaning as the result of a crack having been opened up by a rusting iron cramp.

Somerset Stone Masons used stone from Cotswold Stone Quarries\' Syreford Quarry just outside Cheltenham for the repairs.

The stonework had suffered from previous repairs. It was a familiar story of rusting ironwork and hard cement repairs, worsened in this case by bronze nails having been driven into the stone before the cement repairs were applied to key the cement on to. All the hard cement was removed and any plastic repairs that needed to be were replaced by hydraulic lime.

Owner and director of Somerset Stone Masons is Charlie Barnett, who received the Civic Award at Cheltenham Town Hall from RIBA President Paul Hyatt.