Ian Thomas, the founding director of the National Stone Centre (NSC) in Derbyshire is to receive this year's Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society of London, the world’s oldest national geological society, for his outstanding contribution to promoting the profession and science of geology.

The official announcement has been carried in the Society’s journal, Geoscientist, and the Award will be presented at a ceremony on 8 June at the Geological Society’s headquarters at Burlington House, The Strand, London.

Founded in 1807, the Geological Society of London, more commonly referred to simply as the Geological Society, is one of the world’s premier professional geological organisations. The Society will make Ian Thomas, the now retired founder and director of the National Stone Centre, its 26^th recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

When the news went public Ian 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's award follows previous recognition of the Stone Centre's work in industrial history and sits comfortably with the Centre's recent engagement with the Institute of Quarrying (IQ), which is in the process of moving on to the National Stone Centre's 40-acres site. IQ and National Stone Centre aim jointly to deliver ‘The Story of Stone’ – its origins, operations and its contribution to civilisation and society.

The Geological Society's Distinguished Service Award was introduced in 1998 and is presented annually in recognition of a member who has made an outstanding contribution to advancing the profession and science of geology.

Ian Thomas initiated the concept of the National Stone Centre in 1980. It is a registered charity based near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, from which it runs a Discovery Centre for visitors, various courses and a wide range of services. This year it merged with the Institute of Quarrying, the international professional body with more than 5,000 members (read more about that here). The Peak District Mining Museum also plans to move on to the site, which is being re-designed by local architects of Babenko Associates (read more about that here).

Ruth Allington, IQ and NSC Trustee and President-designate of the Geological Society, says: “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 there to spark that passion in the next generation.”

www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk

Following the success of the Poundbury extension of Weymouth in Dorset on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall comes Nansledan, a 218-hectare extension of the coastal town of Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall.

Once again, most of the land for the development comes from the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate established in 1337 that funds the public, charitable and private activities of the Prince of Wales and his family.

And, once again, the Prince of Wales’ views about architecture, which are not popular with all architects, has influenced the development, with the Duchy’s 'Building Code' governing which materials should be used.

The Building Code sets out a sequence of choice so that, where possible, materials come first from Cornwall. When they are not available from Cornwall there is a hierarchy of preferences for sourcing spreading out to the South West of England, other parts of the UK and then other parts of Europe.

The material options specified by the scheme’s master planners, Adam Architecture, in order to meet the Duchy’s requirements for local materials compatible with a Cornish vernacular wherever possible, have included the use of natural stones such as roofing slate from Trevillett Slate near Tintagel on the North Cornwall coast, from Welsh Slate's Penrhyn Quarry in Wales and Burlington Stone in Cumbria. Granite kerbs and cobbles come from De Lank Quarry on Bodmin Moor. Some of the walling and stone for Cornish hedges is from the family-owned Callywith Quarry in Bodmin. Sawn slate for street signage and cills comes from Delabole Slate Quarry, also in North Cornwall.

Lately, as work continues on Newquay’s mixed-use urban extension, Welsh slates from Welsh Slate’s Penrhyn Quarry have continued to make their mark.

Hundreds of Penrhyn Heather Blues in two sizes (500mm x 300mm and 400mm x 250mm) are being installed on the roofs and as vertical slating on window bays and under-window panels.

The work is being carried out by a pair of specialist contractors for two of the scheme’s three housebuilder developers.

Horizon Roofing, based in Redruth, has been working with housebuilder C G Fry & Son, while Wessex Slate & Tile Roofing Services, based in the Cornish village of Indian Queens, has been working with Wain Homes.

Although the slates have been used on a mixture of styles of houses and apartments at Nansledan, the roof pitches have been designed in a traditional way to accommodate the slate.

As most Cornish vernacular buildings are simple, with simple roofs, the Pattern Book for Nansledan reinforces an approach that minimises the need for any special connections, although they do occasionally happen.

The vision for Nansledan evolved through extensive public consultation, culminating in an ‘Enquiry by Design’ exercise hosted by The Prince’s Foundation in 2004. Detailed planning permission for the first phase of development was granted in 2012 and construction started in early 2014.

Over time, Nansledan will evolve into a community of up to 3,700 homes, with its own high street, primary school, social and public spaces, green infrastructure, and commercial and light industrial units. Nansledan is already home to some 30 local businesses and has quickly become a sought-after commercial location.

Architecturally, the development captures the spirit of Newquay’s urban fabric, sometimes reinterpreting it with a contemporary view to how things have developed in terms of climate and energy use.

Adam Architecture director Hugh Petter, who is Nansledan’s masterplanner and co-ordinating architect, says: “Using Welsh Slate aides the sustainability objective as a reasonably local, long-lasting material. The slate is also characteristic of Newquay and Cornwall. As such it reflects local identity and adds to the cohesion with Newquay.”

Wessex Slate & Tile Roofing Services are two years into the current project phase, fixing the Welsh Slate with two copper clout nails to small roof areas of approximately 80m², working with around 30 properties in a block.

The specification for them is mainly cold roof space, with rafters under felt, batten and slates fixed in random width and diminishing courses. Sized slates are also used depending on availability.

Treve Kitchen is the company’s estimator and materials co-ordinator. He says: “Welsh Slate is detailed on the build plans for the roofs because of its quality, performance, looks and sustainability credentials. It’s a high-quality product and very good to work with. 

“Our clients, the Duchy of Cornwall, work to very clear principals and place a priority on natural, sustainable, local materials and labour, skills and craftsmanship.”

Inevitably, working through the pandemic has made life more difficult and Treve says: “The project has been logistically challenging due to material shortages and constrictions. Maintaining the resources required on a long-term basis while servicing our other clients has also been a challenge, but one we have certainly been very happy to have!”

Spencer Osborn, managing director of Horizon Roofing, which has completed seven phases, said the roofs were standard in the main, although solar tiles have been introduced to some plots. “Overall, the project is a challenge due to the intense labour requirement, but the Welsh slate has performed perfectly well.”

Nansledan won a 2021 RIBA South West Award when the judges said: “At a detailed level, painted timber boarding, render – rough and smooth – granite, hanging slate, brickwork and art-deco embellishments all combine to bring architectural variety.

“But the real achievement here is at the masterplan level, with a new urban settlement that shows great townscape- and landscape-led placemaking potential.”

The scheme also won the category ‘Framework + Masterplan Large’ in the National Urban Design Awards 2021 and was shortlisted for the Planning Awards 2021 in two categories – Plan Making and Housing Development Over 500 Homes.

The Worshipful Company of Masons, one of the City of London’s senior Livery Companies that is celebrating the 550^th anniversary of its grant of arms this year, has produced a video demonstrating how it is still supporting stonemsonry today.

Click here to watch the video.

The video has been produced by the Company’s Craft Fund, which, as Livery member Michelle Turner explains on it, offers bursaries and grants for further and higher education and career-long contact and mentoring networks, while encouraging a high level of skills by providing prizes to students at colleges, through its Duke of Gloucester Awards scheme, and through the Master Craftsman scheme run by the Livery Companies' Craft Council. It also supports the Cathedral Workshop Fellowship and is currently supporting two students on the degree course who do not work for the Cathedrals, with the Fellowship having opened its courses to commercial companies. One works for Matthias Garn in York and one is self-employed.

Anyone seeking help with starting or developing their career in stonemasonry can use the website of the Worshipful Company of Masons to apply for a grant (click here). Anyone willing to make a donation to the Masons' charities can also find information about how to do so on the website (click here).

Adrian Munns, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Masons’ Company Craft Fund, says: “The film illustrates – to those already within the craft, those who may wish to enter the craft, and to the general public – the many ways in which the Company supports different aspects of training, education, career personal development and sustainability in the craft of stonemasonry through the Craft Fund.

“Of course, many others do sterling work covering key aspects of craft training and development, but from what I have seen and learnt, all of us need to continue to seek to get the message across about the importance of sustaining the use of stone and the craft of stonemasonry in our nation’s built environment.”

The four-minute video includes comments from students being helped by the WCM, including Jemima Finch-Darling, a student at the Building Crafts College in London, who says she would 'really struggle' financially without the help of the Livery Company. There is also an appearance from Morgan Edwards, at the City & Guilds of London Art School, who has also received a bursary from the Masons Company. He says the attraction of working stone is that he knows it will be around a lot longer than he will be.

They are just two of the 30 people the Craft Fund has helped in the past year to further their stonemasonry skills. The Livery supports the major stonemasonry training colleges of Bath, York, Moulton in Northamptonshire, the Building Crafts College in London, City & Guilds of London Art School and the Cathedral Workshops Fellowship.

The video is professionally directed by Michael Hewson of Electrofilm. It can be viewed on laptop, tablet and smartphone here. Please feel free to pass the link on to friends and colleagues and anyone thinking of starting training in stonemasonry.

www.masonslivery.org

Members of a family that lured people to the UK then kept them as modern slaves working in construction in London have been given prison sentences at Southwark Crown Court.

The family, from the London borough of Newham, was convicted in December. It has now been sentenced.

Vasile Dragoi Snr, 61 when he was convicted and said to be the head of the family, was given a six-year custodial sentence for his role in a scheme that trapped workers after they were lured to the UK on the false promise of earning £50 a day from construction work.

Two other family members, Florrinel Dragoi and Marian Podianu, received sentences of five years and three months. Ion Brogan Dragoi got five year’s and seven months. A fifth member of the gang, Alexandra Ciocodan, was given a two-year sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

In December, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the five members of what it described as an organised crime family had lured victims to the UK with false promises of well-paid construction work before trapping them in modern slavery conditions with no pay.

The five were found guilty of human trafficking offences at Southwark Crown Court after a 16-week trial.

The prosecutions involved 16 victims. They were told they would be paid £50 a day to work in the construction industry and would have free food and accommodation. But when they arrived in the UK, their identification documents were seized and payments were withheld.

The Dragoi family made the travel arrangements for the victims to come to the UK from Romania. When they arrived they were placed in four houses in east London. In order to hide the number of people living in the properties during local council inspections, their bunk beds were hidden in the loft.

Living in cramped accommodation of up to 26 people in a terraced house, the victims were told they had to pay off debts they did not know they had incurred and their wages were withheld.

Paul Goddard, from the CPS, said the Vasile Dragoi family “used their position to prey on and exploit many economically vulnerable workers who could not stand up to them”.

He said: “They benefited from their victims’ hard work in the construction industry, promising good rates of pay to entice them to the UK before reneging on those promises and keeping most of the wages for themselves.

“The modern slavery exploitation of adults is abhorrent and the CPS will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.”

The CPS said Vasile Dragoi Snr controlled the family and was described as ‘the big boss’. His sons were the controlling forces in the houses and found employment and enforced the invented debts. If the workers complained, they were threatened.

During the trial, the prosecution used evidence including statements from the victims, close co-operation with Romanian police, and analysis of finances, tax records, company transactions and flight details, to prove the case against the defendants.

All five defendants were convicted of:

1. conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation between 1 January 2017 and 20 October 2017
2. conspiracy to convert criminal property between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2017.

• Of the modern slavery cases referred to the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) by police in 2020/21 where the CPS made a decision, it prosecuted 81% (335 cases) and achieved a conviction in 73.9% of those cases.

The European Stone Festival, which has been on hold since the cancellation of the Freiburg event in Germany in 2020 due to Covid, intends to return next year (2023) to Salzburg, Austria.

The Festival was instigated by the stonemasonry college in Frieburg in 1999 and is run by the college each year in conjunction with the authorities of cities around Europe. It has grown in popularity as it has developed and wherever it goes always attracts crowds. These days the cities involved often run other attractions in conjunction with the Festival, making the event even more of an attraction.

It has come to the UK twice so far – Canterbury in 2003 and Lincoln in 2012 – and was due to be back in Britain this year (2022) at the spectacularly renovated Piece Hall in Halifax, Yorkshire, but, again, has been cancelled because of Covid, although the organisers say it will now come to Halifax in 2026.

Wherever the Festival is held it normally attracts well over 100 stonemasons and carvers from around the world, including the UK – and competitors from the UK have won both the overall and apprentice categories on several occasions.

Covid might, of course, mutate again and lead to the cancellation of future Festivals but presuming it doesn't, the next will be in Salzburg next year at a date not yet finalised. The plan is for it then to be in Kiskunfélegyháza, Hungary, in 2024 and Freiburg in 2025 before its return to England.

You can keep up to date with developments about the European Stone Festival on its website at www.stein-festival.de.

Welsh Slate is seeking planning permission to extend Penrhyn Quarry, part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, to keep it operating beyond the end of next year and secure more than 100 jobs there.

There is ongoing demand for the slate from the quarry for roofing, architectural and hard landscaping products.

One of the projects Welsh Slate, part of Breedon Group, based in Derbyshire, supplies with roofing slate is Nansledan, the 218-hectare extension of Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall. This is another of the Duchy of Cornwall (Prince Charles) projects creating people-friendly sustainable new towns. Poundbury, the extension of Weymouth in Dorset, was his first.

At Nansledan, material options specified by the scheme’s master planners, Adam Architecture, to meet the Duchy’s requirements for local materials compatible with a Cornish vernacular wherever possible, have included natural stones from Trevillett Slate and Delabole Slate Quarry in North Cornwall, Burlington Stone in Cumbria, granite from De Lank Quarry on Bodmin Moor, and walling and stone for Cornish hedges from Callywith Quarry in Bodmin, as well as the slate from Penrhyn.

Welsh Slate’s planning application with Gwynedd Council is for a 2.3-hectare extension to the 318-hectare Penrhyn Quarry site in Bethesda, near Bangor. As well as roofing, the slate is used for cladding, flooring, paving, walling and hard landscaping.

The company will also be applying to extend operations by four to five years at its site in Blaenau Ffestiniog, which produces minerals for manufacturers of such products as roofing felt. This would secure the jobs of eight people.

The Penrhyn extension would  increase the amount of slate permitted to be quarried there by 250,000tonnes, increasing the life of the quarry by 12 years to the end of 2035.

Following a period of public consultation, the proposed area of extension has already been halved. There were also concerns about the disposal of waste, but slate has been extracted from Penrhyn for centuries and Welsh Slate says the waste from the extension can be accommodated easily within the existing quarry void without impacting on views beyond it.

The revised working and restoration schemes for Penrhyn can be viewed on bit.ly/PenrhynPlanning.

David Coster, Director of Advanced Stone & Masonry Supplies, which sells Stain Proof and Tenax products, talks to Sam Hotten of Stone Sense, the business he started last year in Oldbury, West Midlands.

David: Congratulations on starting your own business last year. Tell us about it.

Sam: With my experience in the market for the past 15 years I thought it was probably about time that, rather than working for other people, I should set up my own business, looking at getting into the retail side to be more customer focussed, working with kitchen retailers... and online, which has become quite popular as a result of Covid.

We’re looking to focus on the Midlands, where I have worked for a long time, although online you have to think nationally, and if a particular project came up that was interesting, we would look at that. We will see where the enquiries come from and where we can find our niche.

David: Do you prefer quartz, ceramic (sintered / porcelain) or natural stone?

Sam: There’s three answers to that. Easiest is doing shed loads of white quartz. It’s all going to be the same so you can produce it quickly and make most money out of it. That’s what I would do if I was the only fabricator in the UK. But it’s also the most competitive, so from a Stone Sense perspective we’re aiming to focus on ceramic, porcelain and sintered stone. I think it offers a lot of opportunity as a new material in the market because many fabricators who are used to quartz say it’s not their preference.

I think a lot of fabricators out there would say if they’re going to work porcelain their preference would be to establish a separate factory, which would be the factory we have opened because we wanted to process porcelain. I think it’s going to form a large part of the market.

On the other hand, if you ask me what I’m going to have in my kitchen at home I’m probably going to say natural stone – quartzite or marble, something like that, which is coming back because you can’t recreate the beauty of it perfectly artificially. Having been in the industry for 15 years you just love the natural element of the product.

Do you take work straight off the machines or hand finish?

I’ll try to do as much as we can on the machines because you have that level of consistency, as long as you have the operators who understand what you can and can’t do – and that changes with the material because you can’t fabricate everything in the same way. We have a five axes waterjet so we can cut any material. But a key investment was the edge polisher. It’s not our most expensive machine but it is important to the business because it reduces the number of people you need for hand finishing.

Health & safety is an issue, so cutting down on employees makes sense.

Machines don’t have as many sick days and holidays. You don’t get the problem of something like Covid with machines. I suppose the thing I have learnt is to put the maximum effort into things you can control, and you can control machines. But don’t get me wrong, my company is built on having a team mentality.

You started your business during the pandemic and with Brexit still being completed. Did they change your plans?

The market got bigger! Everyone is busy. I have worked in the industry quite a long time and in that time technology has changed a lot. We can’t have price increases because we all do the same job and sell the same products. Prices have come down and you have to use the technology available to compete. But your product is not now seen as unaffordable by as many people and the market is bigger as a result, because people want a surface that lasts longer and looks better aesthetically. The benefit of a growing market is that if you have 1% of it, that 1% is getting bigger.

In one of the businesses I was with previously I sat down with an investment fund and they asked me about the size of the market we were in. I quoted stone sales, but they said surely everyone has a kitchen and every kitchen has a worktop. They said: ‘That’s your market, is it not?’

Do you have any more investments planned?

We have made a large investment in machines. From day one we wanted to be on a level with top end fabricators and you can’t be that without top end machines. We have set the business up to be sure we are not having to make any more investments immediately.

Climate change is a big issue. Do you have plans for Net Zero in 2050?

We don’t have a formal plan. Our suppliers are market leaders and they do have plans in place. One problem with this industry is that everything goes in the skip. At home we are very careful about separating out waste for recycling.

Are you finding it hard to recruit skilled people?

Templating and fitting. There’s an issue: kitchen companies want you to employ the fitters you use, and over time we plan to have our own fitters. One of the things we intend to do with our first fitting team is have them also working in the factory, so they make it and fit it. They need to understand the project.

The kitchen showroom is right in saying they know if I employ the fitters they will do a better job than if I sub-contract the work. But the problem we have as fabricators is that the best fitters are self-employed because they used to be employed, until they realised they could earn more on their own. There isn’t that level of expertise available because the market has got so much bigger.

We say fitting should not require a lot of expertise if the templating is carried out properly. To me, templating is so important its untrue. We outsource templaters and give them a tick sheet. You have to cover every item because the templates are going on to the machines. They have to be right. They use Prodim or laser digital templaters, whichever is right for the job. If the templating is accurate and the machining is accurate the job of the installers should be straight forward. Are we short of expertise? We need people who can follow a process. Is that what’s missing?

Have you invested a lot in computer programs for the office?

I use Moraware, which is fairly standard for fabricators. It’s crucial in terms of production, stock system, scheduling system. We put a lot of time into setting up the systems so we were ready to go.

How do you see the market developing?

It’s more competitive, but it’s got bigger, so there’s more opportunity.

You need more investment to get started these days but it’s got easier because you’re just buying machines. You can replace 20 years of skill and knowledge with a machine. When I first came into this industry the big thing was that we had a CNC router – and we would tell everyone we had one. Now everyone has a CNC and everyone needs work to put on the machines. I need my factory to be busy as well and we’re trying to think of where the areas are that we can make more money by being more proactive.

We’re trying to specialise in porcelain and sintered stone and are talking to other fabricators to see if we can be their supply-only company for porcelain worktops, charging them a price that gives them a margin.

Quartzite is also just as much of a pain to fabricate and I could do that as well. In fact, plenty of those who have only been in the industry for five years or so have probably never even worked granite. All they know is quartz. They think granite is stupidly heavy. You say: yes, that’s what we used to use. People will pick it up by the cut-out!

If the niche for us becomes sintered and natural stone, great. I don’t have 10 people in the office quoting to pick up the volume work, so I have to look for niches, and providing something special for the kitchen market that customers are prepared to pay for.

The competences needed in the stone industry are becoming as much about computer and IT skills as they are about traditional trade skills. Improving productivity is not exactly a new idea, but tools are now available to make it easier to achieve – and those tools are digital.

There are new tools making their way into the workshops of the stone industry. They are certainly not the traditional tools of the trade, but companies are rapidly discovering their benefits.

Reducing down-time, improving machine wear and taking the guesswork out of colour-matching are three ways fabricators are investing in technology to get more out of their existing resources.

That was the message members of the Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF) took from a demonstration day on 8 March organised by WFF sponsors LPE Group, which supplies the stone industry with machinery, tools and equipment, and hosted by manufacturer Zoller at its premises in Derbyshire. LPE sells the Smile tool pre-setters Zoller makes.

Mark Priestman is a Director of a training consultancy whose mantra is: Qualify the Workforce! Here he offers some guidance on NVQs and CSCS cards.

Qualifying a workforce is accomplished through a range of methods:

• Training programmes
• Apprenticeships
• Mentoring
• Access to gaining experience
• Qualifications
• Continuous professional development (CPD).

Many in the workforce are skilled but don’t have a certificate to authenticate their skills. Without a qualification they can’t get a CSCS skilled worker card and it can be harder to get employment.

I’ve spoken at length previously about apprenticeships and specialist applied skills programmes, but thought I should now address the needs of experienced workers who are as yet uncertificated, perhaps because they never got around to it, or because CSCS cards were not previously required as often as they are now, or because they had a card through grandfather rights that have now been withdrawn.

On-site assessment, otherwise know as OSAT, is a method of assessing experienced workers for their NVQ.

Most of the learning requirement is stripped away and the person has instead to build a portfolio of evidence of their skills, and submit to a site visit and a recorded professional discussion.

What occupational areas are available as NVQs? Well, I can tell you those my own business offers.

For managers, there are Level 6 NVQ diplomas in:

• Site Management – Building & Civil Engineer
• Site Management – Conservation
• Contracts Manager

For supervisory occupations, Level 3 NVQ diplomas in:

• Occupational Work Supervision
• Contracting Operations
• For advanced craftsmen and women, Level 3 NVQ diplomas in:
• Banker Mason

For heritage skilled workers, Level 3 NVQ diplomas in:

• Heritage Skills Façade Preservation
• Heritage Skills Mason

For natural stone and façade preservation operatives, Level 2 NVQ certificates/diplomas in:

• Façade Cleaner
• Façade Restorer
• Façade Cleaner & Restorer
• Stonemason Banker
• Stonemason Cladder
• Stonemason Cutter
• Stonemason External Fixer
• Stonemason Internal Fixer
• Modular Pavement Installer

So, what is involved for the learner and their employer in being on an OSAT NVQ programme?

Generally speaking, assessment is less scary in practice than it is when contemplating it.

Additionally, fees for assessment have generally not risen in recent years to assist with the economy, Covid, Brexit and now the fall out from the war between Russia and Ukraine.

To keep assessment fees down, providers like ourselves are doing more on Zoom and via the telephone, and leaving site visits for the essential observation element of assessment. Additionally, learners (or their employers) are encouraged to upload evidence digitally to shared folders, further streamlining the assessment process.

A candidate will be asked to collect video and photo evidence of their activity at work and provide work diaries and copies of any certificates already achieved related to the NVQ occupation.

Following a desk assessment of all this evidence the assessor will contact the learner and arrange to observe them at work and carry out a recorded discussion.

Once the assessor is satisfied the learner has met the national occupational standards for the NVQ, they will submit a claim, which will result in internal and external quality assurance of the portfolio evidence and the assessor’s claim.

Where successful (and so far all our claims have been) an NVQ certificate is issued by the awarding body and sent to the learner.

On the basis of this NVQ certificate, the individual can apply for the appropriate CSCS card after successfully completing the relevant CSCS touchscreen test. While the card needs renewing every five years, which means another touch-screen test, the NVQ is a qualification that lasts a lifetime.

If you can’t find the right construction NVQ for you, get in touch with me on the phone number or email above and I will be happy to help.

www.priestmanweb.com