Cotswold stone quarriers Farmington have taken their dispute with fireplace surround firm Elgin & Hall to trading standards officers around the country.

Elgin & Hall\'s sin is to use the words Cotswold Stone above shop displays of resin fire surrounds.

As reported in the previous issue of NSS, Farmington director Martin Robins took issue with Elgin & Hall after they had been taken over by Aga and circulated a note about the takeover in which they described a resin-based reconstituted stone product as Cotswold Stone.

Farmington managed to gain publicity for their stance in The Daily Telegraph and Aga agreed to alter the publicity to say \'Cotswold Stone Finish\'.

But Farmington, who sell a range of natural Cotswold stone fireplaces, noted Elgin & Hall were still displaying their fireplaces in shops under notices saying \'Cotswold Stone\' and have complained to trading standards officers about it.

In a letter to Martin Robins in response to a letter from him, Elgin & Hall\'s solicitors, Irwin Mitchell, take issue with Farmington\'s complaint and say: "As far as we are aware, you made no such complaint before our client successfully took action to prevent your intended infringement of its copyright and design rights in relation to your planned \'Mistral\' product. We can only infer your alleged complaint is not genuine."

Martin Robins sent a letter by return saying: "Throughout numerous retail outlets stocking your client\'s products, surrounds are shown with the words above them \'Cotswold Stone\'.

"What would a reasonable man infer from such words? That the product is made from Cotswold stone. The Cotswolds is a defined geographical area and stone comes from the ground. Neither of these descriptions fit a resin based product."

On 23 April, Farmington celebrated St George\'s Day by offering extra discounts on their building stone. St George, the patron saint of England, is famous for slaying a dragon. Somehow it seems totally understandable that they should want to celebrate the saint\'s day.