Wells Cathedral Stonemasons have bought a new £75,000 Micheletti wire saw for their works in Cheddar, Somerset.

The saw can cut stone up to 2.5m wide and 1.5m high in two axes. "You can do the oddest shapes with it," says Graham Sibley, managing director.

The saw is intended to increase productivity of standard items such as tracery windows and copings so that masons are freed to produce the more ornate work.

"It\'s a means to an end," says Sibley. "We want to do ornate stonework, but jobs often include more mundane elements as well. This will help us get the sort of work we like."

He said the saw was currently cutting \'L\' shaped stone ridge tiles and quoins for a church restoration.