In case you thought hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) had gone away, a £200,000 fine imposed on a company where two workers suffered from it is a stark reminder that it hasn’t.

The company involved is not in the stone industry. It is Ross & Catherall Ltd, based in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. It makes metal bars for the aerospace and automotive industries. The two operators who suffered HAVS worked at the firm’s Forge Lane site in Killamarsh, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

The company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £7,605.37 in costs at Derby Magistrates’ Court on 17 July after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work (etc) Act 1974.

The men had carried out tasks that included the use of vibrating tools throughout the company’s manufacturing process.

Both operators used these tools for extended periods of time over a number of years without adequate systems in place to control their exposure to vibration.

RIDDOR reports submitted by Ross & Catherall in May 2019 revealed the employees had been diagnosed with HAVS.

The RIDDOR reports prompted a Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigation. HSE discovered there was no hand-arm vibration risk assessment in place prior to or at the time of the workers’ diagnoses to identify what level of vibration the operators were exposed to.

There were no control measures in place to reduce exposure levels, with reasonably practicable measures only being implemented following HSE’s intervention.

Health surveillance was also inadequate. This was not carried out annually and there was no initial health surveillance assessment for new operators. Additionally, referrals were not carried out in a timely manner for those employees displaying symptoms of HAVS.

HSE guidance on HAVS is available online on the HSE website – click here to see it. 

HSE inspector Lindsay Bentley said after the Ross & Catherall conviction: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to assess the risk from exposure to vibration, put in controls to reduce this risk and ensure that health surveillance is adequate to identify symptoms in a timely manner.

“HAVS can be a life-changing condition which impacts all aspects of your life. Prevention of vibration damage is key and there is plenty of guidance available for employers to help them protect their employees’ health on the HSE website.”

hse.gov.uk

Stewart Davies, the financier who rescued the Grade I listed Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire when it became a casualty of Covid in 2021, paid the Hall a flying visit (literally) on 13 July with a group of friends that included Martin Robins, a now retired Director of Farmington quarry, which Stewart Davies also rescued in the 1990s.

Martin Robins now lives in the Cotswolds and Stewart Davies flew Martin and his friends from the West Country in his private jet and on to Kelham Hall in helicopters, one of them piloted by Stewart himself. The party included Charlie Laing, the great-grandson of Sir John Laing; Michael Grey, a conservation architect; George Watkins, a retired aeronautical engineer with aircraft components manufacturer Rotol, which supplied the Dowty Group where Martin once worked; and John Mustoe, a retired Cotswold builder. Natural Stone Specialist was also there.

Set in 42 acres, Kelham Hall was built by George Gilbert Scott, before he was knighted for the Albert Memorial in London. Gothic and classical architecture rivalled each other in the mid-19th century and Scott favoured Gothic. He built several Gothic churches in the East Midlands but maintained that the style was also suitable for secular buildings and set about demonstrating that at Kelham Hall, built between 1859 and 1861.

Although Kelham Hall was criticised by Pevsner and Girouard, it was admired by many and became the intellectual justification and model for George Gilbert Scott's St Pancras Chambers in front of St Pancras railway station in London, which, like Kelham Hall, has walls of brick but incorporates a great deal of decorative and structural stonework, including a variety of marble and granites.

Kelham Hall was never quite finished because, having spent £50,000 on it, the family having it built decided they had spent enough. Consequently, some of the decorative marble and granite columns have never been installed (although the stone bases and capitals are ready to receive them) and niches, presumably intended to carry carvings, perhaps of family members, stand empty (see photo above).

Although a variety of stones have been used at Kelham Hall, especially for the mantles of fireplaces and for those columns that have been included (granites, French and Italian marbles, and at least one instance of Purbeck Marble), most of the stonework is Anston, the same stone from Yorkshire used to build the Palace of Westminster.

The Hall was eventually taken over by an Anglican religious order, the Society of the Sacred Mission, which added a substantial extension to the Hall for members of the order to live in. Those rooms are being turned into 52 rooms to accommodate the wedding parties and business groups that hire Kelham Hall now it is an understandably popular destination for such events.

The religious order also built a chapel, which has the second largest dome in England after St Paul’s Cathedral (it claims to be the largest herringbone dome).

When the Society of the Sacred Mission decided it could no longer justify the expense of running Kelham Hall, Newark & Sherwood District Council moved in, dividing the interior with a variety of stud walls and mezzanine levels to create offices, fortunately without causing much damage to the underlying fabric or painting over Scott’s original paint and paper colour scheme. The council additions have now been largely removed on the ground floor, returning the Hall to Scott’s original designs. On upper levels, more work is required to remove the evidence of the council’s occupation.

Scott liked fireplaces, both as a focus for rooms and because he thought the evolving idea of central heating was just a fad. At both Kelham Hall and St Pancras, all the rooms have fireplaces, with the chimney stacks on the roofs adding to the decorative gothic skyline that the buildings create.

All those involved on 13 July thoroughly enjoyed the delightfully convivial and interesting visit. As Charlie Laing said later: “The jet was amazing, the helicopter was amazing, the main house was amazing, the monk's additions were amazing, the garden was amazing, the company was amazing, lunch was amazing, the weather was amazing! Just totally dazed!”

• Kelham Hall stands next to the River Trent and has also just been visited by Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse, whose Gone Fishing TV programme has gained a wide following. They recorded an episode of the programme at the Hall, although it will not be on television until July next year, when the season is again appropriate.

Each year at Marmo+Mac, Europe’s leading international stone fair held in Verona, Italy, designers, stone suppliers, stone fabricators and leading computer-controlled machinery makers collaborate to produce works of art in stone.

This illustrates the versatility of stone as a material and the ability of the industry that works it to produce just about anything designers can come up with. It is always a highlight of Marmo+Mac for many visitors.

This year the inspiration for this collaboration is a herbarium, which is a book of a collection of dried herbs accompanied by descriptions of their medicinal virtues.

Herbaria are also exciting showcases of unique forms. Each variety of herb is arranged in an orderly fashion on a page, showing the often extravagant response that nature is capable of creating for the survival of each species.

The exhibition this year at Marmo+Mac is called Herbarium Mirabile (Admirable Herbarium). It is curated by Raffaello Galiotto and will be shown in Hall 10 during Marmo+Mac, which takes place from 26 September to 29 September.

In it, a lithic botanical garden is created, composed of 17 marble sculptures.

All the artworks have been designed using advanced parametric 3D modelling software and crafted in marble using high-precision CNC machines.

And this year, for the first time, the decision has been taken to forgo the traditional manual finishing of the sculptures, allowing viewers to see precisely what the machines are capable of. The result is an interesting new expressive language providing a demonstration of the experimental and avant-garde nature of the exhibition.

In a rectangle enclosed by semi-transparent canvas walls, the artworks rise above flat slabs of Botticino marble resting on a bed of coarse gravel. The arrangement is irregular, but the sculptures are adequately spaced to allow visitors to explore each of them from all angles.

Herbarium Mirabile is an opportunity to experience the beauty of coloured marbles from various parts of the world and enjoy the sensual folds, engravings, and unique surfaces designed by people and shaped by diamond tools driven by computers, thanks to the expertise of the developers and operators of those machines.

www.marmomac.com

While some of the ceramic manufacturers have always maintained that sintered stone is just another name for porcelain, the European Commission (EC) and European Organisation for Technical Assessment (EOTA) have now adopted a new European Assessment Document (EAD) that defines Sintered Stone in a category of its own.

The definition is as follows: ‘An industrial product consisting of a wet mix of minerals, without the use of resin or cement. The material is cold-formed by vacuum vibro-compression and then consolidated, after drying, by sintering at temperatures between 1,100 and 1,200°C. The production process is reversible. The material can be used in architecture and design for various interior and / or exterior applications and can be installed by means of adhesives, structural bonding or mechanical fixings.'

And Lapitec, made by Italian machinery company Breton, is the first sintered stone to carry a CE-mark. 

Breton was the machinery company that developed the equipment for making engineered quartz. Having done so, it sold that equipment to other companies to make the slabs. With Lapitec, it decided to keep the production equipment for itself and make the slabs.

It originally worked in conjunction with Spanish quartz company Cosentino, which makes Silestone, on the development of sintered stone, but Cosentino decided to manufacture its own version, which it has successfully marketed under the name of Dekton, even though making worktops from Dekton has given fabricators some headaches. Dekton has the design printed on it whereas Lapitec has achieved full thickness patterns.

Lapitec always wanted the pattern to be full thickness. When it introduced its marble look tops in 2019 the design was not just printed on, as it is with porcelains, but was part of the fabric of the material.

The first Lapitec slab was produced in 2012. The company says it was the result of 20 years of research and development. It says sintered stone is an Italian invention and is now recognised in more than 70 countries by project, design and construction professionals. 

Lapitec sintered stone offers a 100% mineral core that does not use petroleum derivatives (like the resins commonly used in engineered quartz). The first marble effects also introduced a formula free of crystalline silica – and crystalline silica has caused increasing concern among worktop fabricators because of the danger of silicosis from the dust. Lapitec has replaced crystalline silica with a trade-marked product it calls Biorite.

The technology behind Lapitec is protected by 25 international patents. The process involves a lot of heat and pressure, just as the creation of natural stone does, although in the case of natural stone it comes from processes in the Earth's crust. With Lapitec the minerals involved are heated to 1,500°C and compacted under vacuum. They are then heated to 1,200°C to produce large slabs.

The EC and EOTA has decided that sintered stone has properties that are distinct from ceramic, natural and composite stones.

Lapitec says no other material on the market possesses similar characteristics and consequently sintered stone was originally subject to different building regulations in various EU nations. With the adoption of the new European Assessment Document (EAD) for Sintered Stone (EAD 090142-00-0404) that has now changed in Europe.

EAD ‪090142-00-0404 contains a list of essential characteristics of sintered stone. The EAD sheds light on ‪the differences between Sintered Stone and Ceramics in order to ‪avoid overlaps and any misuse of terms. Surfaces that meet the requirements of the new EAD can be CE marked (using existing criteria) as sintered stone.

Following tests and the completion of an appropriate Declaration of Performance (DoP), Lapitec is currently the only sintered material carrying a CE mark.

Lapitec Sales Executive Francesco Giannini says: "All too often other materials are wrongly promoted as sintered stone and this new step will shed light on a long-standing problem that undermines the market niche that we have been presiding over for more than a decade."

Today, Lapitec is sold in the UK by stone wholesaler The Marble & Granite Centre in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. It is available in large slabs, in thicknesses of 12, 20 and 30mm in 18 designs with six alternative surface finishes. All have full-thickness veining.

Non-porous on the surface, it is resistant to temperature changes, frost and high temperatures, UV rays, scratches and chemicals. It can be used in direct contact with water and its high performance, sustainability and availability in XXL sizes make it ideal for use in ventilated facades (rainscreens) and roofing, indoor and outdoor horizontal and vertical surfaces, for swimming pool cladding and in yachts, as well as for kitchen and table tops.

www.lapitec.com

Hamish Ogston CBE, the wealthy philanthropist whose charitable foundation supports the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship (CWF), which trains stonemasons in the 11 cathedrals that have their own workshops, met with CWF students in their masonry workshop on 7 July when he visited Salisbury Cathedral.

The CWF enjoys a long-term partnership with the Hamish Ogston Foundation, which is essential for securing the future of English cathedrals and the people who care for them.

Between September 2022 and August 2025, the Foundation will award £2.3million to the CWF to fund the employment and training of craftspeople, mostly stonemasons but also carpenters, joiners and electricians, at the 11 cathedrals that belong to the CWF, which includes Salisbury.

During his visit to Salisbury Cathedral on Friday, 7 July, Hamish stopped by the cathedral’s on-site workshop, where he met some of the CWF students.

Apprentice stonemason Joe O’Connell, currently studying at Level 2 in preparation for completing the CWF Foundation degree in Applied Historic Building Conservation & Repair, and Matt Barton, who completed this qualification in March last year. Both have benefitted from grants from the Hamish Ogston Foundation.

Joe, Matt and Hamish discussed progress on projects such as a baluster that showcases different masonry profiles and demonstrates the many skills developed on the CWF course.

Joe said afterwards: “I really enjoyed meeting Hamish today and expressed my thanks for his generosity.

“By funding my stonemasonry apprenticeship at Salisbury Cathedral, Hamish has enabled me to pursue my passion for medieval architecture in a practical way and develop the skills necessary for me to contribute to the restoration and maintenance of our built heritage, preserving these beautiful buildings for years to come.”

Hamish said: “My interest in heritage skills and stonemasonry stemmed from observing the great stonework in and around Salisbury Cathedral while I was a chorister and pupil at the Cathedral. “Returning to the stone works yard to meet the apprentices we are funding through our programme with the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship is a great privilege. These apprentices are safeguarding the future of the Cathedral so that many more, children and adults alike, can enjoy the majesty of its ancient architecture for generations to come.”

The Executive Director of the CWF is Frances Cambrook. She was at Salisbury to greet Hamish and said: “We are delighted to welcome Mr Hamish Ogston to Salisbury Cathedral, marking the partnership between the Cathedrals' Workshop Fellowship and Hamish Ogston Foundation in developing the heritage sector.

“This collaborative project has ushered in a new era of progress and advancement, particularly within the member cathedral works departments. Mr Ogston has witnessed the remarkable achievements of our trainees.

“As we approach significant milestones in the academic calendar, with students completing their summer works, it is truly a pleasure to witness our esteemed stakeholders engaging with our talented students and observing first-hand the profound impact they are making on the acquisition and preservation of craft skills in the United Kingdom.”

• The Hamish Ogston Foundation is based in the UK but with a global reach. It is dedicated to three prime areas of philanthropic focus: heritage, music and health. The Foundation’s prime goals are to preserve historic buildings throughout the world by funding heritage skills apprenticeship programmes, to support and build the UK’s choral music tradition, including the role that organs play in that, and to work towards eliminating the disparities in both access to medical treatment and health awareness around the world by funding vital research. To date, the Foundation has committed more than £30million to the protection of historic buildings in the UK and abroad through the training of more than 3,000 people in heritage conservation skills.

Clare Howcutt-Kelly, a journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, is taking over from Eric Bignell as Editor of Natural Stone Specialist magazine, the stonespecialist.com website, the emailed Natural Stone Bulletin, and the related social media platforms.

Eric Bignell, who has Edited Natural Stone Specialist for 30 years, is retiring.

Clare has always enjoyed architecture and during her journalistic career has held positions at some of the UK’s largest publishing companies – including the BBC and Bauer Media.

She brings a wealth of experience to the role of Editor, including digital and video expertise that she will use to enhance the digital presence of the Natural Stone Specialist offering and keep the industry on top of events that affect it.

Clare says: “I’ve always loved architecture and the practicality of constructing and maintaining the built environment. When I find a building that intrigues me I become almost obsessive about researching it, finding out who designed it, where the materials came from and who lived in it. Buildings are the keystones of our society.

“My first week with Natural Stone Specialist was spent at the Natural Stone Show in London and I felt completely inspired by the exciting developments taking place. The enthusiasm from the exhibitors and visitors was contagious." 

You can see Clare talking to some of the exhibitors and visitors at the Natural Stone Show + Hard Surfaces exhibitions in London in the video below.

Clare continued: “I would like to thank Eric and Richard Bradbury, the Managing Director of QMJ Group, which publishes Natural Stone Specialist and owns the Stone Show, for welcoming me so warmly. I wish Eric all the best for his retirement.”

Eric is stepping down as Editor at the end of July, although he will remain in a consultancy capacity. Welcoming Clare as his successor he says: “After 30 years of reporting on the stone industry in Natural Stone Specialist magazine I am retiring and handing over the camera and notebook to Clare Howcutt-Kelly – who will instantly bin them in favour of videos and electrical voice recorders, because she has a handle on information technology that I don’t. It’s one of the reasons I feel it’s time to step aside. Communication has become fast and digital and the Stone Bulletin and social media these days play a bigger part of the service to the stone industry that Natural Stone Specialist offers.

“It’s a great industry to have been involved in – fascinating, ever changing and always delivering beautiful architecture, interiors, landscapes, conservation work, extensions, public art and stone memorials. It gets into your blood.

“It has been a pleasure to be involved with the industry and a joy to have known the people in it that I have met over the years. I’m sure Clare will enjoy it just as much as I have.”

City & Guilds of London Art School, the internationally renowned centre of ornamental and architectural carving and sculpture, has appointed Tom Young as its new Head of Carving. Tom will take up his role for the start of the 2023/24 academic year.

With more than 20 years extensive experience as a lettering designer and carver, Tom has run his own business alongside developing his teaching. He has taught lettering at the Art School since 2006, becoming Senior Lettering Tutor in 2014.

Professionally, he has worked with such august bodies as the Fishmongers Livery Company, the Olympic Park, Old Royal Navy College Greenwich and Eton College.

He takes over from Heather Newton, who has headed the carving department since joining from Canterbury Cathedral, where she was head of the works department, in 2020. She is now returning to Canterbury Cathedral.  

The Art School has also appointed Ghislain Puget to take over from Nina Bilbey as Lead Stone Carving Tutor while Nina takes a leave of absence to continue her own studies.

Ghislain has been working in the carving department since 2007. He is a highly experienced teacher and professionally qualified stone carving tutor.

Construction once again accounted for the highest number of workplace deaths in the year to the end of March, according to figures from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) published on 6 July.

There were 203 workplace deaths, 135 of them involving people at work and a further 68 members of the public. Construction accounted for 45 of the worker deaths.

They are absolute numbers, and because the construction industry employs so many people its death rate per 100,000 employees is third highest at 2.1, well below Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing’s 7.87 and Waste & Recycling’s 5.02.

And although people’s lives should not be at risk at work, the UK still kills fewer of its population at work each year than most countries, making it one of the safest countries in the world to work in.

The most likely way to die at work is by falling from a height. Next most likely is being hit by something heavy that is falling, and third is being hit by a vehicle.

Almost everyone (96%) of those killed at work in the latest figures was male, and the death rate of those over 65 was three-and-a-half times that of those under 65.

The total of 135 worker deaths in 2022/23 is higher than the previous year (123), but is in line with recent averages. There has been a long-term downward trend in the rate of fatal injuries at work, although in recent years the rate has been broadly flat.

This week's meeting of the Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF), at Granite House in Preston, was attended by more than 40 members, with demonstrations from industry product suppliers.

Chris Pateman, the General Secretary of WFF, said: “Right at the beginning of the day, we made the point that talking and sharing with one another is vital if fabricators are to stay in tune with the regulator and ahead of the cowboys. Fabricators and suppliers have a common interest in maintaining the industry’s quality image – and delivering the kind of margins that enable us to invest in safe and efficient factories, which guarantee the industry’s future.”

The team at Granite House shared its own experiences throughout the day and demonstrated the Omar crane for safe lifting and manoeuvring of heavy materials. Matthew Pegg of ACAS Engineering was also in attendance revealing ways of using waste heat from compressors to preheat processed water making wet hand polishing more comfortable in colder weather.

Stonegate and Harrisons of Hull were also present to showcase respiratory protective equipment. Members were invited to discuss current issues, including alternatives to FFP2 face masks for workers with facial hair to protect them from silica dust.

Stonegate gave a demonstration of tooling outside. 

The risk of vibration damage (white finger) from using hand tools was raised by Keith Phillips from Havsco, who talked members through a wearable device for monitoring vibration for the duration of an entire shift. 

A key issue of the day was the need for recirculating water in cutting and polishing machines, with Simon Bradbury from Stone Industries Group (SiG) discussing the correct use of flocculants and coagulant additives to prevent pipes from clogging.

SIG's Trolex Air XS real time silica dust monitor was sampling the air in the showroom throughout the day. WFF has acquired one of these machines for the benefit of its members.