Forest Pennant paving and setts from the Forest of Dean have helped Bath’s Georgian railway station to retain its historic character while it has been redeveloped for the 21st century.

Funded by the Southgate Limited Partnerships, the development incorporates a new, open space within the station itself where restaurants and kiosk units will be sited.

There are 2,700m2 of the natural paving in the regeneration scheme, with an additional 500m2 of accompanying setts. In order to accommodate changing accessibility schedules as well as limited on-site storage, Forest Pennant operated just-in-time manufacturing to meet the programme schedule.

The mixed-colour sandstone from the Forest of Dean complements the honey-coloured Bath limestone extracted from the Bath area and used to build the city.

Simon Martin, Operations Manager at Bath and North East Somerset Council, commented: “Forest Pennant sandstone is an excellent natural landscaping solution which complements Bath’s historic public realm palette of materials.

“We endorse the use of sustainable products wherever possible and have been impressed by Forest Pennant’s aim to become carbon neutral, minimising their carbon footprint with innovative measures such as the implementation of water turbines to fuel the plant. We hope to continue to incorporate Royal Forest Pennant in future regeneration projects as a preferred hard landscaping solution for Bath.”

Forest Pennant supplies natural stone for both commercial and domestic use, extracting the indigenous Pennant stone from its very own quarry at Barnhill, Royal Forest of Dean.

Using sustainable extraction techniques, the locality of the quarry and the natural elements of the stone itself makes it an integral, environmentally-beneficial material for building, architecture and masonry in the UK; suiting both traditional and modern methods of construction.

Martin Tresidder, senior project manager of the Southgate development at Queensberry Real Estate, says: “The entire development is sympathetic to the Georgian architecture of the town and the history it represents. The town is one of the only working cities to achieve World Heritage Site status, so we intend to incorporate the ancestry of it across all renovation schemes.”