Providing wheelchair access to St Paul’s Cathedral in London presented the cathedral and the architects at Purcell Miller Tritton with an opportunity for a more meaningful display of medieval remains of the building that was there before the Great Fire in 1666 and Wren’s subsequent rebuilding. The work that has been carried out, re-enclosing a section of the churchyard, has resulted in a superb display of Purbeck limestone from Dorset.

The stone was worked by Purbeck stone quarry company W J Haysom & Son and Lander’s Quarries and laid by Stonewest. And the project won the Landscaping Award in last year’s Natural Stone Awards presented at Lords cricket ground.

The work identifies the footprint of the medieval Chapter House as low walls that display the intricate sections of the original pillars inlaid into the top. The highly-skilled work was produced by hand at St Aldhelm’s Quarry masonry works using the dark Purbeck Grub bed as the inlay, tightly inserted with a resin joint into the paler Purbeck Wetson bed. The surface was then honed.

The Natural Stone Award judges said of the project: “This scheme demonstrates a brilliant use of levels and shows how intimate detail, if as well executed as this is, can enhance a small-scale scheme.”

W J Haysom & Son and Lander’s Quarries, which are under the same ownership, operate several quarries in Purbeck, Dorset, as well as two masonry works (at Lander’s Quarries as well as St Aldhelm’s Quarry).

W J Haysom & Son and Lander’s Quarries have been involved in many prestigious projects over the years, including Purbeck Marble capitals, columns and bases at several English cathedrals, notably Salisbury, Chichester and Lincoln; also paving at Warwick Court (Paternoster Square), Merrill Lynch, Temple Bar, 1 Wood Street, Cannon Street, Christ Church, Spitalfields, St Martin-in-the-Fields (all in the City of London) and Windsor Castle, Highgrove, Eton College, St Mary’s Church (Slaugham) and currently, Boxgrove Priory.