Ancaster Architectural Stone, part of the Goldholme Group in Lincolnshire, say they have received planning permission to re-open an Ancaster limestone quarry.

Goldholme, established four years ago, also sell the stone from five other quarries, have a stake in Quickstone Eastern, an Indian company bringing stone garden ornaments and fireplaces into the UK, and have an 80 acre site in Wales producing flagstones and rockery stone where they intend to start prospecting for gold.

Ancaster Architectural Stone (AAS) were set up a year ago by Goldholme to work the Ancaster quarry, first used by the Romans as a source of building stone and more recently for aggregate production.

The stone has been extracted down to about 4m, but Goldholme believed there was stone to be exploited in lower beds.

Phil Kerry says tests have shown there are still a million tonnes of reserves, including what he describes as the streaky bacon effect of the original Ancaster building stone.

Goldholme have been selling about 200 tonnes of walling stone a week, they say, as well as ashlar, rockery and other garden stones, flooring and some Collyweston slates. They expect to produce about 2,000 tonnes a month of the Ancaster, which will replace some of the other stones.

The stone will go to the group\'s existing works on a 1.5 acre site at Little Bythem, Lincolnshire, where there are 12 staff, five saws and an automatic cropping line. The works are in an old railway gods yard, once used for taking Clipsham stone into London.

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