When you think of London you tend to think of Portland stone, but once London was paved in Purbeck. Suttle Purbeck Stone thinks it could be again.

When we think of the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666 we tend to think of the Portland limestone chosen for the buildings. But of no less significance were the stones used for the spaces between the buildings – Kentish ragstone for the roads and Purbeck limestone for the pavements.

Records stored in the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayors of London, make it perfectly clear that nothing else would do, which gave Purbeck its second renaissance – the first being the use of Purbeck Marble for so many important buildings in the Middle Ages.

Now Suttle Purbeck Stone is hoping its latest investment in a new CNC bridge saw, a GMM Egil, will give it its own mini-renaissance.

“We have concentrated on this locality,” says Matt Suttle from the owning family who has lately joined Nick Crocker and his small team on the dimensional stone side of the business. Matt, with his dad, Christopher, accompanied Nick and Darren Bill from GMM’s UK agent, Roccia Machinery, to GMM in Italy earlier in the year to see the saw being packaged ready for delivery to Suttle’s saw sheds at California Quarry on Purbeck in Dorset.

Coincidentally, among those with them on the trip to GMM was Marcus Paine from Hutton Stone in Berwick-upon-Tweed, who was also thinking of buying a GMM saw. Marcus’ father had owned the 13-acre California Quarry before selling it to Suttle in 2003 when he retired, just as Suttle’s lease on Swanage Quarry, where the company previously extracted its stone, came to an end. Marcus’ brother, Joe, runs Suttle Projects, another part of the Suttle group dealing mostly with civil engineering.

Nick Crocker says the decision to replace an ageing Terzago saw with the GMM came after taking a good look at what was available. And he says two other Terzagos, a primary and a secondary, will probably be replaced by GMMs as well. “We’ve hung on to them too long really. They were working well so we didn’t feel the need to change them but it’s the technology it’s difficult to catch up with. We thought the GMM was the best to make it happen.”

Matt adds: “We went to see a lot of different companies and would like to thank them for their hospitality. In the end I was very impressed with the GMM and Roccia themselves. Darren was someone I got on with. But you only really need to look at how many are selling into the UK and worldwide. The other thing was that it was immediately obvious how user friendly they are – and everyone we visited confirmed that.”

Matt says the new saw might allow Suttle’s to venture further afield – although by no means all its stone is used locally.

Local demand has been boosted for several years by the extension of Dorchester on Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall land at Poundbury, which Suttle’s continue to supply as it is needed. But there has always been a demand from other prestigious projects in the UK and abroad – including the British Library in London where Suttle’s Purbeck Grub was used as flooring.

The company also believes the new saw will enable it to move more into the conservation / restoration field, producing bespoke work for projects where Purbeck stone needs replacing.

Suttles has already increased its presence in the heritage sector with some of the stone currently coming from the quarry lending itself to roofing tile production. Purbeck roofing is in short supply and Suttles is finding a ready demand for all it can make.

In fact, Nick Crocker says demand for all the company’s Purbeck – Cap, Grub, Thornback, New Vein and more – is currently high in all its forms, from cropped walling to ashlar to paving to flooring to masonry of all kinds. “We are well up on last year’s figures and last year was exceptionally good.”

Matt says production of standard lines such as the bagged building stone and the roofing continues in winter in order to stockpile for the summer peak. “When someone’s on the phone trying to order some stone it’s good to be able to say ‘yes, you can have it in two days’. But with the level of demand now we’re finding it hard to keep up.”

Nick adds: “Most of what we do is bespoke. It’s very easy to say what people want to hear but it’s better to be honest and say we cannot deliver until a certain date and then make sure it is there on that date. Customers appreciate that. We like the whole experience to be pleasant for them.”

Suttles has supplied Purbeck and other natural stone for more than 40 years. Nick Cocker has been involved in that supply for most of that time as he is just coming up for his 40th anniversary with the business. But he is not unusual among the eight people who work at the quarry. Alan Smith has been there 38 years and Geoff Twigg nearly 30. Mark Cockwell, a sawyer, has been there 11 years. But there are younger people coming through as well, currently working on the guillotine producing the cropped walling.

They all live locally, like their colleagues within the other sectors of the Suttle group, the major parts of which involve aggregates, transport, and the civil engineering Projects business. “Dimensional stone is a small, niche part of the group,” says Nick.

Being local, they are deeply involved with what goes on in the area. Matt, for example, is a member of the sea rowing club in Swanage, so was happy to supply the stone for a new clubhouse there, which visiting competitors call ‘the castle’.

There are two major, eagerly awaited events run each year for charity by Matt’s dad, Christopher, who heads the group. One is a golf day, which this year had as its guest of honour Matt le Tissier, the former Southampton footballer who was capped eight times for England, and raised £1,800 for charity. The other the Big  Night Out, when people with learning difficulties go for a night’s clubbing. This year the event was attended by a record 400 club-goers from across Dorset.

And Nick, Matt and Christopher, as well as Marcus and Steve Paine, are all part of the Ancient Order of Purbeck Marblers and Stone Cutters (Marcus is entitled to be a member because his father was).

Once, when the quarries employed hundreds of people, the Ancient Order was a significant organisation on Purbeck, consulted on a wide range of local issues. Traditionally it ran a chaotic game of ‘football on Shrove Tuesday each year through Corfe Castle, although these days it has become a less disruptive and violent affair through a field and down an alley of the village, rounded off with cheese and penny loaves.

The famous Purbeck limestone quarried by Suttle Purbeck Stone at Swanage is used for rockery, walling, building stone, roofing tiles, crazy paving, internal and external flooring, sawn, riven and textured flags. It takes a fine polish, making it an attractive material for tiling, shelving and fireplaces.

Purbeck Stone has superb wearing properties and is durable, as the numerous surviving centuries old buildings, including medieval churches, and pavements testify.