Slab fabrication software company Slabsmith has launched a new version of its popular software that is now available from its UK distributor Stone Automation. 

The latest iteration of the software, 2023.6, offers enhanced 3D features as part of the Perfect Match layout module, allowing the user to implement complex 3D assemblies. There is the option to create full height walls, fireplace mantels and tackle other projects using a standard digital template. 

Other features of the new software include cost and pricing properties plus a live scan module to assist with inventory reconciliation. 

Lichfield Cathedral, the only Medieval three-spired cathedral in the UK, has joined eleven other institutions including York Minster and Westminster Abbey to become a member of Cathedrals' Workshop Fellowship (CWF).

Currently, Lichfield Cathedral is creating a works department and workshop facility within its grounds and this has been made possible thanks to support from the Hamish Ogston Foundation (HOF) and its Craft Training Programme – which has committed £3.5m to the training of craftspeople across the UK. As a result, Lichfield Cathedral will train two stonemasons. 

Frances Cambrook, Executive Director of CWF said: "The Cathedrals' Workshop Fellowships (CWF) is delighted to welcome Lichfield Cathedral as our twelfth member at this exciting time for both our organisations. As we witness a significant nationwide effort in the sustainable conservation of historic buildings and the acquisition and retention of craft skills, Lichfield's inclusion is a testament to the collective dedication to preserving our rich heritage."

DK Holdings, manufacturer and supplier of diamond tools and components has been awarded EcoVadis silver medal status. This award focuses on sustainability and once assessed, DK Holdings was confirmed to be in the top 18% of companies undertaking the survey in 2022/2023.

Speaking about the award, Finance Director, Darren Mills said: "We are extremely proud of our EcoVadis assessment with special mention going to our compliance department who worked tirelessly alongside the board of directors on implementing our environmental, stress and bullying and harassment policies, ensuring we achieve the silver medal status."

Installation of 585 solar panels at the production facility in Kent was just one of the ways the company proved its commitment to reduce environmental impact.

QEST has announced its new Sustainability Award in partnership with Heritage Crafts. The competition is open to any craftsperson working with traditional materials (including stone) or those incorporating traditional skills in their work. Entry requires the entrant to demonstrate they have made a significant commitment to becoming more environmentally sustainable within the last 12 months.

There is a cash prize of £2,000 and the winner will be invited to attend a reception at Vicar's Hall, Windsor Castle on 15 November.

To find out more about the award and to enter, visit Heritage Craft's website.

Hard landscaping and building products leader Marshalls has issued a profit warning ahead of the publication of its interim report on 16 August. At the same time it has announced the closure of its concrete products factory in Carluke, Scotland, and a reduction in shifts and capacity at other sites. The Marshalls commercial team has also been restructured.

The changes are expected to result in 250 job losses. This is on top of 150 jobs cut in the second half of 2022.

These actions are expected to deliver annualised savings of approximately £9million, with around 40% of that being realised in the second half of this year. The Board is executing a programme of surplus land disposals, and has continued to focus on efficient working capital management in order to reduce the Group's net debt.

On a like-for-like basis, the Board says Group revenue is likely to be 13% down in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2022 (subject to auditor review). Profit is likely to be 27% down at £33million.

In money terms, revenue for the six months ended 30 June 2023 of £354million is 2% higher than in 2022, but includes four months' contribution from Marshalls' purchase of Marley.

The warning has been delivered against the backdrop of challenging market conditions with persistent weakness in new build housing and private housing RMI (repair, maintenance, improvement), which are key end markets for Marshalls.

Sustained high levels of inflation, increasing interest rates and weakening consumer confidence has led the Board to anticipate the Group's performance in the second half will be below its previous expectations.

Marshalls Landscape Products has continued to experience tough market conditions due to its exposure to new build housing and the more discretionary elements of private housing RMI. Revenue for the period was down 20% on last year at £174million. On a like-for-like basis, after adjusting for the disposal of Marshalls NV in April this year, revenues contracted by 18%.

Marshalls Building Products delivered a more resilient performance, supported by demand for bricks, masonry and mortars, offset by weaker volumes in drainage and aggregates, again relating to the lower number of new housing starts. Revenue for the period was £87million, down 9% on 2022. 

Marley Roofing Products saw mixed demand across its product offering. Viridian delivered further growth in integrated solar revenues supported by changes in building regulations, which was offset by a weaker performance in roofing, due, again, to lower volumes of new build housing. Revenue for the period was £93million, down 7% on a like-for-like basis.  

The Board says: "We have balanced the need to reduce our capacity and cost base in the short term while retaining the flexibility to increase production when demand recovers. The Group has latent capacity across all its businesses that can satisfy materially higher demand than that being experienced in 2023."

While previously anticipating a recovery in market conditions in the second half of this year, the Board is now of the view that an improvement in the second half performance is unlikely given the macro-economic backdrop. The Board now believes performance in the second half will be markedly weaker than the first half, and consequently expects to deliver a result for the full year that is lower than its previous expectations.

While the fear of dying from a virus has all but disappeared from most of society, memorial masons and the rest of the death care sector are still busy.

There was another spike in the number of deaths this winter and that has been keeping memorial masons and their suppliers busier than usual again this year.

The number of death certificates mentioning Covid-19 has fallen but was back over 1,000 for the week after the Christmas and New Year holidays at the start of this year (see graph below).

The figure for Week Two of every year is inflated because there is always a drop in the number of deaths reported during the holidays and a catch up in the week after (other bank holidays also see a fall in reported deaths). This year the number of deaths continued above both the 2022 level and the five-year average for most weeks until April.

The five year average, by the way, is now being calculated without using the figures from 2020 because 2020 Covid deaths would distort the average upwards significantly.

It was not only Covid that caused the increase in deaths this year, although that clearly contributed. Other viruses and/or germs were also involved, with ’flu, pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratory system appearing on the death certificates of more than 11,000 of Week Two’s 17,381 deaths reported in England & Wales. With Covid, that accounts for 70% of all the deaths registered.

(Deaths reported to the General Register Office in England & Wales are published weekly and, as they account for most of the deaths in the UK, provide a convenient weekly snapshot of mortality in the UK.)

Although the number of deaths in 2022 was below the rolling five-year average, you can see from the graph below that the total was still significantly above the pre-pandemic level and memorial masons were also busy last year.

It is speculated that it was because they were so busy that 100 or so of those who had registered to visit the NAMM Tradex exhibition in September 2022 did not turn up. It was an unusually high number of no-shows for the exhibition, which caters for a small, niche market, although exhibitors seemed generally happy with the outcome.

There is disagreement among the exhibitors about the preferred frequency of the show, with the memorial wholesalers saying it should be every three years rather than its current two yearly frequency. They like to use the show to introduce new ranges in new catalogues but do not want to do that every two years. Other exhibitors like the two-yearly frequency because the show boosts their sales.

In 2019, the wholesalers showed their disapproval of the two-year frequency by not attending. The show went ahead without them.

There was to have been a show in 2021, but with Covid restrictions still being imposed it was decided in conjunction with exhibitors to wait until 2022, and to move the show to September from it’s usual slot at the Warwickshire Event Centre in June.

The wholesalers were back this time, but with the disruption Covid had caused some still did not have new catalogues to show. Some still don’t, which could be part of a new post-Covid normal.

There is no doubt that Covid accelerated and expanded the use of digital technology. Those who might have been reluctant to use it before Covid had to get used to it during the restrictions and have not looked back. Memorial masons who had resisted setting up online accounts with their wholesale suppliers before Covid got used to the idea during the pandemic. The wholesalers are also making ordering online easier by updating their websites.

And although there is a direct correlation between age and the likelihood of dying, the bereaved who are buying memorials are usually younger and are more likely than ever now to be familiar with viewing products they want online, perhaps making printed catalogues of memorials less important as a sales aid.

Wholesalers that did not have new catalogues for last year’s show say they will have them for the next Tradex, which the organisers, the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM), have scheduled for 2025 – three years after the previous show – again in September at Warwickshire Event Centre.

Peter Hayman, NAMM’s National Executive Officer, says the three year gap is in recognition of what the wholesalers have been asking for, although it is also to give NAMM time to move into new premises that it has bought with a mortgage that costs no more than the rent it is currently paying for its offices in Rugby. 

The property it is buying is near to its current offices. It is just a shell in need of renovation, as you can see from the pictures below.

The premises will clearly require a lot of work and Peter Hayman did not feel it was realistic to be carrying out that work and moving into the new premises at the same time as organising the next Tradex exhibition, which is another reason it will be held in 2025.

NAMM is also vacating the piece of land it has been renting on an allotment for carrying out the testing of memorial safety systems and for training. It is hoping to come to an arrangement with the council whereby the association will keep a nearby cemetery tidy and safe in return for being allowed to carry out its training and fixing system assessments there. “It has some nice old memorials in there that we could refurbish as part of our training,” says Peter.

NAMM has also been involved in discussions with the Church of England about standardising churchyard regulations regarding memorials. BRAMM (the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons) has also been involved in these discussions.

The Church set up an Ecclesiastical Judges’ Working Party on Churchyard Memorial Regulations. Its report, which is imminent, will set out its views about what needs to be done to bring about greater consistency between dioceses. It cannot insist dioceses comply, but it says it hopes its proposals will be persuasive enough for most, if not all, chancellors to follow them, even if there are minor diocesan variations in the light of discussions, which should include local masonry companies.

BRAMM, like NAMM, provides training for memorial masons on the correct way to fix memorials and then keeps a register of those trained so cemeteries can be sure they are allowing only trained masons into their cemeteries to fix memorials safely.

Last year, BRAMM took the decision to create a new position of Executive Officer and appointed Yvonne Colverston, who had been on the BRAMM Board for several years, to the post. She stood down shortly afterwards “for personal reasons”, although she is still involved with BRAMM. It is now felt there is no need for an Executive Officer.

Following Yvonne’s departure, BRAMM administration has been carried out by an agency, although a new administrator has been recruited and was due to start from the beginning of August.

BRAMM also sponsors the Cemetery of the Year contest, which has contributed so much to the improvement of cemeteries. BRAMM provides a prize for the Memorial of the Year category, but that category is now being included every other year only and is not included this year.

A mini trade show at The Blast Shop 21-22 September

Claire Wallbridge, the Training Officer of the Natural Stone Industry Training Group (NSITG), has also recently been elected as Chair of the Craft & Training Committee of the Worshipful Company of Masons (WCM), the stonemasonry livery company. The WCM invites working stonemasons it has helped with their training or otherwise been involved with into the Livery as Yeomen. There are 73 of them. Although the Yeomen are invited to take part in some of the activities of the Livery, the Craft & Training Committee was concerned there were no events especially for them. It has decided to change that.

It is planning a number of events especially for the Yeomen and the first of them took place at the National Trust's Fountains Abbey in Ripon, Yorkshire, on 27 July. It gave the Yeomen a chance to meet two of the National Trust's apprentice stonemasons working at Fountains Abbey and to hear from three Liverymen about their experiences in the stone industry.

It was presented as an upskilling and networking opportunity for Yeomen to find out more about their craft, the industry they are working in and what stonemasonry has to offer as a career.

The three Liverymen they heard from were: John Burton, an architect who headed Purcell Architects; Tom Billington, of Oculus Management; Adam Stone, MD of Chichester Stoneworks. 

As well as the Yeomen, those who took part in the day included York College stonemasonry tutor Paul Hill and Stone Federation President Chris Kelsey, who was there representing the Stone Academy that Stone Federation launched at the Natural Stone Show in London in June to ensure there is comprehensive training provided for today's stone industry.

At Fountains Abbey, John Burton and Adam Stone outlined their eventful involvements with the stone industry.
 

The Building Limes Forum’s main event this year, including its AGM, is taking place in Lincoln 1-3 September.

The event is based at the University of Lincoln, Minerva Building, Brayford Pool, Brayford Wharf N, Lincoln LN6 7TS. It includes presentations and site visits – book a place here.

Speakers include: 

• David Wiggins, CARE Engineer and Director at Clach Conservation. His subject is: Working with carbonate binders in damp environments.
• Maria Stefanidou, Professor and Head of the Laboratory for Building Materials at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Subject: Comparative studies of lime putty, dry hydrates and hot mixed lime mortars. She will also present a case study of the PerLiMat project where insulated lime plasters were used.
• Mike Haynes, Director at the Mineral Products Association. He will discuss lime production and the road to net zero. In fact, lime producers have said they will go beyond ‘net zero’ to ‘net negative’.
• Nigel Copsey, Stonemason, Conservator and Researcher at Hot Mixed Mortars. Subject: Lime and hair plaster and pointing mortars.
• Philip Gaches, Master Plasterer, Author and Director at Gaches. He will give a presentation entitled: The beautiful simplicity of lime.
• Richard Jordon, Roofer, Teacher and Assessor. His subject: Lime mortar in traditional roofing.

Tours and demonstrations include: 

• Tour of Singleton Birch lime quarry and manufacturing site.
• Lincoln Cathedral tour by the cathedral’s in-house conservation team
• Lincoln Medieval Bishops’ Palace – works tour by the contractor Messenger and Buttress Architects. There is more about the Bishop’s palace on the English Heritage website here and on this website here.
• There will be practical demonstrations of the use of lime mortars at Lincoln Castle by Rebecca Gilling and Nigel Copsey.

For more information and to book a place visit www.buildinglimesforum.org.uk/events

The price for the full event booked before 4 August is £370 for Building Limes Forum members and £400 for non-members. After 4 August it is £400 for members and £430 for non-members. Places can be booked for individual elements of the event. The prices for each element vary. The AGM is free for members to attend.