Heart of stone

Stone is no longer quarried in Filkins, on the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire borders but, unlike its predecessors, the firm has spread its wings wide, while still specialising in using stone appropriate to a particular location.

For example, of the Cotswold quarries from which it sources its materials, one near Guiting provides stone of a slightly darker colour for the Snowshill and Broadway area. Freestone is used further north in Oxfordshire, in villages such as Horton and Great Tew.

Further north still and beyond the county, sandstone becomes the appropriate material.

Filkins Stone Company was founded ten years ago, building on the work of its predecessors in the village. Among its staff, however, there are craftsmen with experience going back 35 years.

The team consists of banker-masons, who prepare the stone for customers, a sawman, who cuts the stone from the raw materials, and fixer-masons, who work on the buildings themselves.

Sub-contractors are employed to carry out some of the site work.

An example of how the business is contributing today to the work of the craftsmen of earlier times is the addition of a new stone staircase to a centuries-old church in Oxfordshire.

At Rycote Park, near Thame, the company built a magnificient Portland stone staircase, thought to be the largest built in England for many years.

Mr Martin said: "Over hundreds of years the structure has been changed by generations of stonemasons. It is nice to be part of that. It really is a living heritage. We are adapting a building in a significant manner for its use in each period of time."

Mr Martin, who with his wife Jane also runs Cotswold Woollen Weavers, on the adjoining site, describes himself as a dealer in natural materials - and stone and wool are both completely natural.

He explained: "The Cotswold Lion - the Cotswold sheep - paid for the stone to be pulled out of the ground and turned into the Cotswold landscape of the towns and villages as we know them - and I like that.

"Our predecessors gave us the tradition. Originally the itinerant stonemasons wandered around and used local materials. We don't wander around, but we still supply the local materials in each place.

"We continue the tradition of using the right stone for the job. It is very important to do it that way. We are using the same excellent stone, extracted in the same way."

The local Cotswold stone was used for work on a building on Church Green in Witney during the time it was the offices of West Oxfordshire District Council, and for the facade of the Midcounties Co-operative building in Chipping Norton, when it was renovated.

In Lechlade, Cotswold stone forms the prominent finger-post in the Market Place and in Burford, Filkins Stone Company replaced the plinth on the church steeple which supports its weather vane.

The earlier plinth was installed by masons in 1842, so the replacement should last well into the next century.

At the parish church in Clanfield, a replacement was made for one of the cruciform gables, to match those still in place. Such work represents the public face of the services the company provides, but it is equally busy in homes and gardens.

Any form of masonry can be supplied and fixed, and projects from a single window to a complete restoration undertaken.

The emphasis is on quality, flexibility, ability to deliver and competitive pricing. Developments over the last ten years have enabled the company to extend its range.

"We welcome people to come and see us and talk through their project with us," said Tony Davies, in charge of sales and marketing.

"Anything a customer would like made out of stone, we can provide. No job is too big or too small, is the company's policy. We have a very wide range of skills here.

"We will work in any stone, create a work of art, a statue, or interpret an abstract idea - or we can make something as simple as a cube on which to stand a vase."

Planning a project begins with the preparation of working drawings, then the selection of stone and other materials, be they for walls, floors, roofing tiles, or outdoor paving.

A display in the showroom shows examples such as decorative fireplaces and outdoor features including stone foundations. Also on display are replicas of church architecture features, such as the cruciform gable.

The latest introduction is country flooring, in both stone and wood.

Not all the materials are newly quarried. Reclaimed stone and other materials are also available. Very often these suit a building better than new ones, so bringing those already part of a tradition into the homes of the 21st century.