RHS Chelsea Flower Show was established in 1913 and showcases the best of the best in garden design, planting and more. Attracting a lively crowd of professional gardeners, enthusiasts and celebrities, it's become a highlight of the social calendar for many.

And while it's mainly known for plants, it is also a great showcase for natural stone for landscaping and features. Many of this year's winning gardens featured stone including slate, limestone and sandstone. The show proved to be a platform for emerging talent, too and while most people were focused on the flowers, Stone Specialist editor, Clare Howcutt-Kelly was looking at the stone. Here's just a few of the highlights.

Complete beginners and those more experienced carvers are invited to attend the Summer Carving School in Norfolk this September. 

The Abraxas Academy is run by tutors Nina Bilbey and Charlotte Howarth who are both experienced stone and letter carvers, respectively. This course runs from 2-5 September will be held in Bradmoor Woods in West Acre and costs £590 per person. This fee includes three full days tuition, three nights camping pitch, set pieces of stone for carving and letter carving, use of tools plus refreshments, lunch and dinner. Non-carving companions are also welcome to stay for £160. 

Participants can attend both Nina's stone carving course and Charlotte's letter carving course with a third day to concentrate on either skill, depending on preference.

To find out more, abraxasacademy.co.uk

Ross Stewart is UK senior sales manager for Neolith, a world leader in the design and manufacture of sintered stone. With more than ten years in the stone industry, Ross speaks with  Stone Specialist about the market, sustainability, and how fabricators can enjoy extensive training with the brand.

If someone is looking to work with Neolith for the first time, what advice would you give to them?
We recommend designers and fabricators planning to work with us take part in the extensive training we offer. We also offer a RIBA approved CPD to the A&D community. But the best way to experience Neolith is to arrange a visit to our factory in Castellón, Spain. The Neolith Experience is an exciting journey to Neolith’s core, to its products and how they are crafted, as well as giving a masterclass on the history and values of this family-owned company and its meteoric rise to become a global corporation, present today in more than 100 countries. The visit includes a guided tour around Neolith’s production plant, where the manufacturing process is explained in detail, showing how the natural minerals are transformed into premium sintered architectural surfaces. The tour also includes a visit to the headquarters’ showroom, where the guests can see for themselves the versatility of the surfaces and the difference Neolith makes.

Tell us something that makes the products unique?
The major standout qualities of Neolith sintered stone are the combination of design and functionality with high heat resistance, high scratch resistance and near zero porosity of its surfaces, meaning Neolith is very easy to clean and highly resistant to staining. It’s also highly resistant to UV, frost and thaw, which means it can be used in outdoor kitchens, which are becoming increasingly popular in the UK market and being adopted into the offering of a lot of kitchen designers and studios.

Neolith is also synonymous with quality, versatility, and sustainability as well as class, elegance, and style and contributes to the creation of unique spaces and extraordinary experiences featuring sustainable functional design.

Neolith has reached the lowest crystalline silica content range in the market and continues to evolve its sustainability roadmap, leading the change in its industry by minimising the crystalline silica content as technically feasible. In fact, earlier this year at Salone del Mobile in Milan, we presented a new product line without crystalline silica in its formulation.
 

The Women in Natural Stone group (WINS) has announced its next line-up of events. These events provide the opportunity to learn and network with like-minded individuals in a supportive and lively environment. Members represent all areas of the stone industry and the group is led by Becca Cranfield of Athena Stonecare and Tamsin Pickeral of Szerelmey.

Over the next few months, there will be three key events:

26 June 2024
Jessica Morgan-Smith of MPG Ltd will be welcoming guests to a special networking event at QMJ's Hillhead, the largest exhibition for the Quarry, Construction and Recycling industries. WINS ambassador, Jessica Morgan-Smith from MPG Ltd, will be welcoming guests to the QMJ Group Ltd Stand (H1) for coffee and pastries and a chance to connect with other women in the stone industry. The event takes place at 2pm.

9 July 2024
Kelly Fenech of Lovell Stone Group is running an exclusive mine tour at Hartham Park Bath Stone. The event includes an exclusive tour of Hartham Park Bath Stone, the oldest operational Bath Stone underground quarry. Witness the extraction of Hartham Park Bath Stone and explore the historic workings dating back to 1810. The event takes place from 10am-2pm.

6 September 2024
Stella Zambelis and Angelica Zambelis of D Zambelis are hosting a wine tasting at Crouch Ridge Vineyard. It is run by Ross and Samantha whose love of wine and the beautiful Crouch Valley Region inspired them to plant Crouch Ridge Vineyard in 2010. 

Caesarstone has announced the appointment of a new head of customer service for the UK and ROI. Aisling Murrihy has taken on the role and has worked with high-end brands including Hermès, Anya Hindmarch, Agent Provocateur and Selfridges throughout her 20 year career.

Prior to taking on this new appointment, Aisling led customer service teams in the beauty and skincare industry at L’Oreal, Medik8, and Charlotte Tilbury. In addition, her experience includes working with John Lewis Partnership, Apple and sofa company Snug.

Edward Smith, managing director at Caesarstone UK and ROI said: “Aisling’s appointment as Caesarstone UK and ROI’s first Head of Customer Service is a critical step in our strategy to enhance customer satisfaction and service excellence. Over the past few months, we have made significant strides to ensure exceptional customer experiences, including new appointments in our retail, trade and housebuilder divisions, improvements in logistics and operations, and the implementation of new service solutions. Introducing a Head of Customer Service is the latest move in our ongoing dedication to ensuring our customers receive the best possible care.”

Jonathan Stanley, VP of marketing and customer service at Caesarstone UK and ROI added:  “I am delighted to welcome Aisling to the team and she brings with her fantastic experience and knowledge. Recent customer feedback confirms that we enjoy a solid reputation for having premium products. Aisling’s arrival will help us ensure that we have a premium service proposition to match”.

Inigo Jones Slateworks based in North Wales is up for sale with an asking price of £750,000. The site spans around 2.9 acres and the listing includes a range of traditional workshops and stores, a modern showroom and visitor centre, café (tenanted until 2025) and farm shop, and benefits from extensive visitor car parking. 

Founded in 1861, Inigo Jones started off as a business making school writing slates. Over the years, it has diversified to offer products including slate architectural items, memorials and gifts crafted from indigenous Welsh slate.

The site is accessed directly off the A487, around 5 miles from Caernarfon and approximately 1 mile from the settlement of Penygroes. The A487 is the main North-South trunk road and is estimated to have some 9,000-10,000 vehicles a day passing at this point. The property also adjoins Lon Eifion, the section of the National Cycle Network connecting Caernarfon with Bryncir. This significant site offers potential for both a continuation of the current business as well as opportunities for diversification and redevelopment. 

In recent years, the slate works has become a tourist and educational attraction where visitors can embark on self-guided tours and enjoy view exhibitions which showcase geological phenomena, historical connections, intricate artistry, calligraphy and letter cutting.

The site is being sold through Daffyd Hardy and more information can be found here.

A book celebrating the beauty of Stamford, Lincolnshire has been created by Gary Curtis of Instagram’s @theoldbuilding account. Captured between 2018-2023, the 184-page hardback features original photography captured by the author.

Once called the “finest stone town in England” by Sir Walter Scott, the book collects images from the historic centre of the much-admired town. Although contemporary, the atmospheric photographs take the reader on an unforgettable journey through Stamford’s fascinating history.

A rare inscribed stone known as an ogham stone has been found in Coventry and is currently being displayed at the ‘Collecting Coventry’ exhibition at Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.

The stone was discovered by Coventry local Graham Senior during lockdown in May 2020, Coventry local Graham Senior while he was gardening. The rock, at around 11cm in length, appeared to have several horizontal incisions along the side. Senior shared his discovery with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, also known as finds.co.uk, who confirmed that the stone was inscribed with ogham, an Early Irish language dating back over 1,600 years.

Graham said: "It caught my eye as I was clearing an overgrown part of the garden. At first, I thought it was some kind of calendar. Finding out later it was an ogham stone and over 1,600 years old was incredible.”

Ogham was an alphabet used in the Early Medieval period primarily for writing in the early Irish language. Before the people of Ireland began using manuscripts made from vellum, they used the ogham writing system to inscribe on materials such as stone. Ogham is highly unusual among world writing systems, consisting solely of parallel lines in groups of 1-5. The stones provide insight into the Irish language before the use of the Latin insular script. 

The earliest ogham inscriptions date back to the 4th and 6th centuries AD. Over 400 known ogham stones and fragments have survived, found predominantly in Ireland and on the Welsh coast. The main function of ogham stones is still uncertain. However, some historians believe that they were used for legal purposes in land disputes, as they are often found on or near boundaries of kin and bearing the names of ancestors.
 

A stone carving festival returned to Wells in Somerset for the May Day bank holiday weekend this year and, as former editor of Stone Specialist, Eric Bignell reports, it was a real success.

Held at the Tythe Barn in Britain's smallest cathedral city, the event was organised by local mason Paul Roddan, who had also organised the first carving festival there in 2018. He said in 2018 he wanted it to become a regular event, but circumstances conspired against that – not least the Covid pandemic. But this year the festival did return and once again Paul says he wants to establish it as a regular in the calendar of attractions at Wells.

Conservation and restoration specialist Stonehealth has announced the conversion of its iconic machinery to be able to run on biodiesel.

All future machines sold by the Gloucestershire company will be able to run on the eco-friendly fuel, while the machines in use around the UK and globally are now able to be retrofitted.

The move comes in response to requests from contractors, partly in anticipation of an industry move towards cleaner fuels given that restoration projects are often undertaken in urban environments where air quality is paramount.

Brian Crowe, founder of Stonehealth which recently launched the Doff III – the latest iteration of the superheated water cleaning system – said tests had shown biodiesel was working equally well, with improved cleanliness and no impact on core operation temperatures.

He cited US Department of Energy figures which show an 86 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs) when using biofuel, but confirmed that the machines would still run on diesel or kerosene where price was a key factor.

“Biodiesel is slightly more expensive than normal diesel,” he said, “but the ecological benefits are clear and we know that end clients are starting to factor emissions into project awards for our contractors.

“For example one of our contractors in the Netherlands is aiming to win a contract with the Dutch government, which has stipulated that diesel is not permitted on the project in question.

“Other contractors in the UK are also finding that promoting the eco-benefits of their solution is a factor in winning work with public and private organisations.

“This is particularly relevant in urban environments where air quality is a significant issue and where pollution causes damage to heritage buildings.

“So we know this move is happening across the industry. We wanted to get ahead of the curve and pre-empt the demand becoming more commonplace.”

Research and development for the biodiesel conversions have been undertaken by the engineering team at Stonehealth, which is based in in Cam, near Dursley.

Brian confirmed that tests had shown all existing iterations of Stonehealth machinery – three models of the Doff machine, as well as the Torc cleaning system – could be converted to run on biodiesel.

“Our team are able to retrofit older models if necessary,” he commented. “We’ve done the tests and the machines work really well on this fuel.

“So we’re excited to offer this new development as our company continues to lead the way in the careful restoration of our nation’s heritage buildings.”

In January, Stonehealth announced the launch of the new Doff III machine - a new and improved, even safer and more sustainable version model of the machine used by architects, specifiers and cleaning industry professionals in the UK and worldwide.

At the same time the company has appointed Angela Southern as business development director, as the company seeks to enhance its reputation and explore new markets.