In a room that wouldn’t look out of place at the Kennedy Space Center, Steve Murphy, of Planet Granite (https://www.planetgranite.co.uk/), and his 17-year-old son, Stevie, look out of long windows on either side into workshops where three hefty ABB robots (that they have named Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo) are cutting stone.

The workshops that house the robots were put up by Steve and Stevie during the Covid restrictions. The control room houses the supercomputers that run the robots and isolates the computers and the operators from the work areas.

Steve Murphy is impressed with the way his son has mastered the programs that run the robots – so impressed that he has nominated him for an Emerging Talent Award at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London, 6-8 June. Planet Granite is exhibiting at the exhibition (on stand E57) to explain the capabilities of the robots. Terzago Robotics, the Italian company that supplied the machines initially, is also at the exhibition (on stand B17).

Both Steve and Stevie went to Terzago in Italy for instruction on how to program the robots, although they have had to hone the process of putting that knowledge into practice by learning as they go in the Planet Granite workshops.

Stevie started studying engineering at college in Coventry after leaving school but found the pace pedestrian after what he had learnt at Planet Granite, so he has quit to work full time in the family business. And a separate company, called Planet Sculpture, has been set up for the robots.

One of the first major stone projects they attempted was cutting a bigger than life-size Batman into a block of granite that had stood for years outside the Planet Granite showroom a few hundred metres from the workshops. A natural fissure in the stone has left Batman with a dramatic gaping wound in his arm.

The intention is to bring the finished Batman sculpture to the Natural Stone Show. Afterwards it will be put back in front of Planet Granite’s new showroom. More drama will be added by a 100,000 lumin torch shining the Bat sign into the sky at night in the same way as the authorities of Gotham City call Batman when they need his help.

Planet Granite has four robots all together. The fourth is a saw jet on a 10m run in a second workshop. It is called Scarlet after Steve’s daughter.

Asked now what his customer base is going to be Steve is frank: “I have no idea.” Which is why he is exhibiting at the Natural Stone Show in London and has also employed a company to make 15-minute podcasts for him to promote the business.

One possible area for the computers is a growing trend among avant-garde furnituremakers to use solid blocks of stone. French artist Arthur Vallin working in New York and Kelly Wearstler (https://www.kellywearstler.com/gallery-view-all), also in America, are among those making chairs, tables and other furniture in solid stone.

Cars, sculptures of people and animals, and many other solid, 3D objects that can be designed on computers or scanned from models can be produced by the robots.

With the Institute of Quarrying now partnering the National Stone Centre in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, plans are progressing to raise its profile as a centre of excellence for presenting the benefits of natural stone to the built environment.

There’s a touch of Alice in Wonderland about going under the old, stone railway bridge into the National Stone Centre in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. And what you find on the other side is about to get a whole lot more exciting.

A detailed planning application for a £6.5million transformation of the National Stone Centre near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, was approved unanimously by Derbyshire Dales District Council in April. It is hoped building work will start in the autumn and be finished 18 months later.

The plans have been developed in partnership with Wirksworth-based building design and consultancy practice Babenko Associates.

The design has a cantilevered structure that sees the building emerge from the hillside, like the overhanging rock formations found in local gritstone outcrops such as Black Rocks and Stanage Edge, as well as reflecting the area’s industrial heritage.

Phase One of the project includes proposals for a 100 seater café / restaurant; four naturally lit classrooms with a combined capacity for 120 learners; 700m2 of museum / exhibition space; a souvenir shop; Changing Places facilities; a new thematic children’s playground; and a 1,200m2 open-air circular piazza for community events.

James Thorne is Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Quarrying, which merged with the National Stone Centre (NSC) in 2021. He says: “In 2021 the value of tourism to the Peak District and Derbyshire’s economy was estimated at £1.96billion. A re-imagined and reinvigorated National Stone Centre will bring new visitors, as well as providing a focal point for engaging the public, schools and colleges in the science, history, and the present and future of the quarrying and mineral products industry.

“We are delighted to have reached this point in the project, which makes everything feel so much more real.”

The planning application was the end result of more than a year’s consultation and engagement with the NSC’s stakeholders. James says feedback was taken on board and helped shape the submitted planning application. 

The National Stone Centre is on a 42-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) encompassing six former limestone quarries and 120-or-so mines, from which lead (in particular) was extracted.

In fact, there is a tentative proposal for the Peak District Mining Museum, which concentrates on the lead mining industry of the area, to relocate on the site from its current home two-and-a-half miles away in Matlock Bath.

The NSC opened in 1990, thanks to the tireless work of Ian Thomas, its founding and long-serving (though now retired) Director, who received last year’s Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society in recognition of his contribution to geology at the National Stone Centre (see below).

The aim of the Centre has always been to inspire people to engage with geology, history and industry in a story told by minerals (notably stone) and their extraction.

The merging of the NSC with the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) came with a vision of developing the NSC into a knowledge destination used by the stone and minerals industries to engage a wider audience.

The NSC, with its stone carving and dry stone walling training, Geo-Trail and country walks, restaurant and education centre in the heart of a stone production area always intended to spread the stone message to locals and visitors alike. But it was, as James Thorne describes it,  “resource shy”. In other words, it lacked funds.

The association with IQ has provided additional resources to allow it to develop. And from the perspective of IQ, it provides an opportunity for the extractive industry to spread the message about the essential role of minerals in modern society, not least as low carbon natural stone for the construction industry.

James says IQ has recently run a course on biodiversity led by a geologist whose fascination with the subject had been inspired by a trip to the NSC as a child. During the visit she took part in a gem-panning activity, which is still part of what is on offer at the NSC.

IQ was previously on the outskirts of Nottingham but has now relocated to temporary accommodation at the NSC. It is waiting for the new building work to provide it with its new headquarters.

Proposals for improvement

The designs for the new buildings by Building Design Consultancy Babenko Associates, a practice scarcely a stone’s throw from the National Stone Centre, were on show at the NSC for much of last year. The proposals eventually submitted as the planning  application were influenced by the feedback they received.

Gabriel Babenko, who heads his practice, says: “The National Stone Centre is a bit of a local landmark, so we jumped at the opportunity to present our ideas to provide the Centre with a new home, as well as office and meeting accommodation for the IQ and its members.”

He describes the site as “a real hidden gem, with stunning views and an industrial legacy of past quarrying”.

The public consultation process about the proposed development – online as well as at the NSC itself, and taken to Wirksworth Market and Matlock’s ‘Go Green’ event – received overwhelmingly positive support from the local community.

James Thorne says: “This process was very much about listening to what people had to say and providing a channel via which all feedback could be delivered – positive and negative.

“We had a good response to the consultation, both in person and in writing. This included insightful feedback on the project’s outline plans, which we have taken and used to inform a further iteration of the proposed development plans.

“We are looking to make a significant contribution to the Derbyshire visitor economy and, through doing so, inspire future generations to join an exciting sector to help tackle significant challenges such as digitalization, the circular economy, zero carbon, and the skills of people in the industry today.”

He says the NSC will become a world-class centre for training and continual professional development (CPD), for events and meetings, innovation and research, to inspire, educate and engage with as wide an audience as possible.

Throughout the consultation process, IQ reassured regular visitors to the National Stone Centre that facilities such as the Blue Lagoon restaurant would remain operational during the building works.

You can see plans of the proposals and find out more about them in a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section of the IQ website that is dedicated to the NSC project at www.quarrying.org/nationalstonecentre.

Viv Russell, who is President of IQ and on the Board of D2N2, one of 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships in England supporting business growth and levelling up, says the Institute has a driving ambition to realise the potential of the NSC and create a new home for IQ. He says: “This is a once in a generation opportunity to create a hugely exciting new visitor centre that celebrates the extraordinary role that stone plays in all of our lives.

“The existing building has limited potential for development, so we invited ideas from a small group of local architects to come up with their own vision for a new National Stone Centre.

“[They] gave us a lot of food for thought, but ultimately the team at Babenko Associates really captured our imagination with their ideas around construction materials, sustainability, and use of space. In addition, we want the NSC to continue to grow as part of the vibrant local community. Employing a partner that can be on site in minutes and also understands the nuances of the local area is a huge benefit to us.”

Activities at the National Stone Centre include courses on stone carving and dry stone wall building, both of which have left a legacy at the Centre itself, including an impressive record of different styles of dry stone walling  from around the country in what is called the Millennium Wall, which actually comprises 19 different sections of wall.

It was built in the year 2000 (hence the name) by more than 150 members of the Dry Stone Walling Association, which is based in Cumbria.

The wallers came from all over Britain, bringing their own local stones with them to add to the geological variety to be seen at the NSC. They built the different sections of dry stone wall in the distinctive styles of the areas they were from – because wallers and dykers work in their own traditional styles, often dictated by the geology of their area, in different parts of the UK. The walls were built on the four days 29 April 2000 to 1 May.

All around the NSC information boards explain what you are looking at and on the Millennium Wall each section of walling is explained and the stone used identified.

The story of the geology of the area occupied by the NSC unfolds along a geological trail of about half-a-mile around the six quarries that once operated on the site. The quarrying has revealed key parts of a lagoon and reef, as well as a thin band of volcanic ash. It is why the site was chosen as the location for the NSC. And it is because of  its geological significance that much of the site is categorised and protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The trail starts and ends at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. It is called the Blue Lagoon because 330million years ago it would have been standing in a fairly shallow lagoon in the tropics. The disused limestone quarries of the NSC once formed part of a tropical island surrounded by shallow lagoons, barrier reefs and white sand beaches. There would have been volcanoes erupting from time to time around what is now Ashover and Matlock, as well as further north.

This was during the Carboniferous, which takes its name from the large underground coal deposits created by the eventual fossilisation of the fallen trees of a lush forest that covered the land. This part of the Midlands was once famous for its coal mines.

Many of the creatures that lived in and around the blue lagoon that gives the restaurant its name had shells made from calcium. Eventually deposits of the calcium built up on the floor of the lagoon to form the building blocks of the limestones (limestone is Calcium Carbonate – CaCO3).

Today that stone contains the fossils of corals, brachiopods and crinoids, sea lilies and sharks’ teeth from the creatures who lived in the sea, providing an opportunity for those visiting the NSC to see some of the fossils in the visitor centre.

Gradually the movement of the tectonic plates and pressure and heat on the buried sediments of the blue lagoon resulted in the limestones found today in Derbyshire and other parts of the Peak District. They have been (and still are) used to build the towns and villages of the region, giving it the distinctive identity that makes it such a popular place to live and visit.

Ian Thomas receives the Distinguished Service Award of the Geological Society

Ian Thomas, the founding Director of the National Stone Centre, was the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society of London.

The Geological Society’s Distinguished Service Award is presented annually in recognition of a member who has made an outstanding contribution to advancing the profession and science of geology. Ian was presented with his Award at a ceremony on 8 June at the Geological Society’s headquarters at Burlington House, The Strand, London.

When the news that Ian was to receive the Award went public, he said: “Naturally, I am personally absolutely delighted to learn of the Society’s decision to honour me but, in a broader sense, I see it as an endorsement of all we have achieved and are planning to do at the National Stone Centre by enhancing geological interests nationally.”

Ian initiated the concept of the National Stone Centre as long ago as 1980. A decade later it opened as a registered charity in Wirksworth (see main story).

Ruth Allington, an IQ and NSC Trustee who is President of the Geological Society, said: “It’s wonderful that Ian has been recognised for his lifelong dedication to the science of geology by his peers through this award. His passion for the subject is inspiring and without it we wouldn’t have the facilities at the National Stone Centre to spark that passion in the next generation.”

Cliveden Conservation, one of England’s best known stone and conservation specialists, is becoming even more widely appreciated as it appears in a new BBC heritage series.

The first episode of Hidden Treasures of the National Trust was broadcast on BBC Two in the prime-time 9pm slot on 12 May. It is also available on BBC iPlayer.

During the series members of Cliveden Conservation’s team  explain the work involved in maintaining  some of the country’s most beautiful and historic buildings as the BBC goes behind the velvet ropes that normally block the public from entering.

The six-part series follows experts, including those from Cliveden Conservation, as they breathe new life into fragile marvels, uncover hidden stories, and strive to keep the past alive. 

In the first episode, Cliveden’s Douglas Carpenter is recorded making casts of 2,000-year-old fragile marble antiquities from the collection amassed by Victorian James Bateman at Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire. The facsimiles will be returned to the Geological Gallery where the originals were once displayed to remove the originals from any risk of damage.

The series is also showcasing stories of the gardens and landscapes within which these properties sit.

In another episode Cliveden is seen carrying out a condition survey and repairs to the masonry of a historic Venetian window at Ightham Mote in Kent.

Then it’s over to Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland where conservators reinstate the unique storm damaged sculptures on the Dodo Terrace.

All together members of the Cliveden team appear in four of the six episodes. 

Tom Flemons, a Director and conservator at Cliveden Conservation, who appears in the series, says: “Working with the film makers added a new dimension to our projects. It allowed us to step back and appreciate what a privilege it is to be involved with The National Trust’s treasures.”

DUST. IT CAN KILL. NOT TODAY. BUT YEARS DOWN THE LINE. DON’T RISK YOUR OR YOUR WORKERS' LONG-TERM HEALTH. PROTECT LUNGS FROM DUST.

That’s the message from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as it embarks on another campaign to tackle silica and wood dust on construction sites.

It says workers die every week from lung diseases caused by exposure to dust. Many more suffer from severe chronic long-term lung conditions that severely restrict their activities.

It wants to make sure companies and their employees know the dangers. So, starting on 15 May and lasting for three months, HSE is carrying out a targeted health inspection initiative focusing on the respiratory risks to construction workers from exposure to silica and wood dust. 

The inspection initiative will last until 14 July in support of the HSE Dust Kills campaign. HSE says the intention is to support industry by raising awareness of health issues related to dust exposure and the importance of effective control measures. 

To find out more about the campaign and what you can do to fight dust exposure, visit the campaign website: Construction Dust – Work Right to keep Britain safe. 

You should also download HSE’s dust fact sheets to plan your work to stop dust getting into the air and use the right controls. There is an information sheet specially for stonemasons that can be downloaded from the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg463.htm.

HSE’s Dust Kills campaign provides free advice to businesses and workers on control measures required to prevent exposure to dust. The inspections throughout May, June and July will focus on making sure that advice is being followed.

That advice says dust risks should be managed with effective measures in line with the broad hierarchy of control options: water suppression, dust extraction and, as a last resort, respiratory protective equipment (RPE) – in other words masks.

HSE’s chief inspector of construction, Michael Thomas, says: “Every year we see construction workers die from diseases caused or made worse by their work. This is unacceptable in the 21st century, when occupational lung disease is preventable.

“We are urging employers and workers to take the necessary precautions today to protect their long-term lung health, to avoid them and their families suffering from the devastating impact that can result.”

HSE says the primary aim of the inspection initiative is to ensure workers’ health is being protected. But it warns that inspectors will not be ignoring other issues and if any other health & safety issues are discovered inspectors will take the necessary action to deal with them.

Stone Federation hosted a walking tour of Sheffield's impressive natural stone public space landscape architecture, with Sheffield City Council's Senior Landscape Architect, Mike Brearley, talking about the schemes, on Wednesday (10 May) .

The tour started in Sheaf Square at the front of Sheffield railway station, which was the first landscaping scheme Mike Brearley was involved in when he joined the Council 20 years ago, then as assistant to Richard Watts, who was the Senior Landscape Architect on the project.

A major part of the scheme was a water feature constructed in Johnsons Wellfield Quarries’ Crosland Hill sandstone, although the water was turned off in 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic. It has never been turned on again, not least because when it was turned off the council saved the cost of running the fountains and with energy prices soaring since then it has not wanted to incur the cost again.

The project was the first in Sheffield for which Steintec supplied the mortars. And as Steintec Technical Director Steven Burton explained over the lunch at the Leopold Hotel the company provided at the end of the tour, it marked a significant development in pavement construction. Notably, it did not have expansion joints.

It was used as evidence of the efficacy of the modular paving system that was incorporated into the evolving BS 7533 standard for the design of pavements constructed with natural stone or concrete.

As Steve Burton said: “At that time we had established the dynamics of natural stone in modular pavements and the causes of failures as well as the solutions, which include considerations of the correct choice of stone itself, where technical properties differ, as well as the technical properties and requirements of the mortar, the importance of detail in the design and the correct methods of installation.”

Sheaf Square helped transform the reputation of stone from being seen as a problem product for hard landscaping to being the materials of first choice.

Mike Brearley led the Stone Federation party on to other notable projects in Sheffield, including Barkers Pool in front of the City Hall, where the bullets of a World War II Messerschmitt have left their mark in the stone of the war memorial; Hallam Gardens; the Natural Stone Award-winning Tudor Square; the tranquil Peace Gardens; and the new Pound Park, with, as well as the Crosland Hill stone, lamp posts created by the landscape architect and artist Julian Stocks that celebrate Sheffield’s steel-making legacy based on Julian's memories of the city’s steel works as a child.

Johnsons Wellfield’s sandstone, quarried in Yorkshire, features heavily in the projects in Sheffield and Mike Brealey said: “If stone can come from a local source it has to come from that local source.”

That is not to say all of the stone in the schemes do come from local sources. There is also plenty of Chinese granite, including the majority of the paving in Sheaf Square. Much of the Chinese granite in Sheffield has been supplied by Hardscape. Other stones featured include Caithness paving from Scotland, Lazenby red sandstone from Cumbria, Kilkenny limestone from Ireland for street furniture and, from Yorkshire, Green Moor.

Sheffield also has some particularly good examples of sustainable drainage schemes (SuDS) that other areas should take note of, especially with Schedule 3 of The Flood & Water Management Act 2010 likely finally to be implemented in England next year to try to reduce the amount of raw sewage flooding into rivers and coastal waters (click here to read more about SuDS).

One area of Sheffield that was given an extensive stone upgrade only 25 years ago in a scheme with a design life of at least 60 years is now scheduled for a redesign to incorporate a SuDS system, although Mike Brearley says: “I do want to re-use the stone. It would be almost a crime if we didn’t.”

Mike has made his own contribution to sustainable drainage by designing and 3D printing a drain cover specifically for one of his schemes. It was made in steel for him by Sheffield company Steel Line. It is pictured below.

The tour by Mike Brierley was highly informative, and would have been of benefit to architects, planners and landscapers all over the country, as well as to the students of Sheffield’s Hallam University who had been scheduled to join the tour but were kept away by a test being sprung upon them at the last minute.

For those who couldn’t make it, the short video below gives you a taste of Sheffield’s stone landscaping that you missed.

The government has decided it is going to be easier to decide which of Britain’s EU-derived laws to scrap than to select those to retain.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation & Reform) Bill intended to revoke automatically some 4,000 laws that originated from membership of the EU at the end of this year. Some of the laws involve employment protection rights and health & safety regulations.

The Bill was introduced to Parliament in 2022 under the Premiership of Liz Truss. Although its aim was to scrap the EU-derived laws, it allowed for those that would still be needed to be retained.

When Richie Sunak was vying for the job of Prime Minister he said he would scrap the EU laws in the first 100 days of his premiership. He has changed his mind.

When the Bill was introduced by Liz Truss it was described as the culmination of a journey that began with the referendum in June 2016 and marked the two-year anniversary of ‘getting Brexit done’.

Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law created at the end of the transition period of leaving the EU (the end of 2021). It consists of EU-derived legislation that was preserved in the UK domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Successive Conservative administrations have maintained that the retained laws will be dropped, but Kemi Badenoch, who was appointed Secretary of State for the Department for Business & Trade in February this year, said in a written statement on Wednesday 10 May that there were “risks of legal uncertainty” if the majority of EU laws were repealed at the end of this year.

The task of identifying and, where necessary, amending those that were to be retained was unlikely to be completed by the end of this year. The Retained EU Law (Revocation & Reform) Bill has also received a cool reception from the House of Lords.

So instead of automatically scrapping all the laws except those that should be retained, the plan now is to identify about 600 that can be repealed or amended. It remains to be seen which 600 that will be.

Repealing or amending existing legislation can be achieved without the Retained EU Law (Revocation & Reform) Bill becoming law, but the changes would have to be agreed by Parliament.

Northamptonshire hard landscaping stone supplier Stone Plus UK has been placed into Administration. The Administrators, Jo Hammond and Gareth Rusling of Begbies Traynor in Sheffield, are looking for a buyer.

Stone Plus is in Mawsley, Kettering. It supplies a range of natural stone, porcelain and concrete landscaping products, and also has distribution rights for Oakdale Greenscaping and Irish McMonagle Stone for the south of England.

The administrators say the company experienced financial difficulties due to shipping problems and cashflow pressures that led to significant debts accruing, making the business unviable.

Stone Plus has three employees who are being made redundant.

Business advisor Eddisons has been appointed to sell the business and its assets.

Marshalls, which now includes the roofing Marley Group that it bought last year, has warned in a trading update for the four months to the end of April that group revenue contracted 14% on a like-for-like basis compared with last year.

Marshalls, headquartered in Elland, West Yorkshire, says the fall reflects the uncertain macroeconomic climate, a fall in new house building and continued weakness in private housing repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI).

Marshalls’ update says: “In the first quarter of the year, National House Building Council new housing starts were 27% lower than 2022, which had an impact on the performance of all the group’s reporting segments. 

“Management have acted quickly to reduce costs in the business and are accelerating plans to improve production efficiency, while ensuring flexibility to respond when market demand improves.”

While revenue for the four months ended 30 April was £227million – year-on-year growth of 12% – that includes the contribution from Marley this year that was not there last year.

Marshalls Landscape Products experienced tough market conditions due to its exposure to new house building and domestic RMI to achieve a revenue of £110million compared with £140million in the same period of 2022 – a fall of 21%. 

Marshalls Building Products delivered a revenue of £55million against £61million last year, down 9%, while Marley Roofing Products produced revenue of £61million, down 6%.  

The Group says the removal of some 70 ‘indirect roles’ in the businesses will result in annual savings of around £3.5million.

It adds that it is confident it will be able to generate profitable long-term growth when market conditions improve, although for now it expects the macro-economic climate to remain challenging.