The 1st of August sees us reach our 25th year of trading.
It’s hard to believe how much the company has changed in that time.
Natural Stone Sales Started out in 1997 as a Sales agent for Natural Stone Paving. Large paving contracts were won and completed. These included Paving a lot of prestigious areas including Birmingham Cathedral. Buxton Opera House. Nottingham Town centre.
The only problem with just selling the paving products was that every job required more than paving products for example kerbs and seats. Because of this, a production yard was set up at the Rowsley office to fulfil these add on items and opening the possibilities of much larger and better contracts.
In time the business continued to grow and new orders were being taken from local builders for House masonry. Due to the continued growth, another yard was rented near Youlgreave to allow for this expansion, this in turn needed an investment into larger frame saws.
Unfortunately, the paving business came to an end when the quarry was bought by a new operator and eventually this quarry like many others was closed down.
The yard at Rowsley then expanded into Marble and Granite used for Kitchens and Bathroom worktops. Our yard manager at that time was experienced in this, so it opened up another window of opportunity, offering new products.
In 2002 Richard (Natural Stone Sales Ltd’s Managing Director) had the opportunity to purchase the lease for a local Mandale Derbyshire Fossil Limestone quarry, known locally as Once a week Quarry.
The quarry would offer Limestone building products to the local area and Youlgreave would be able to produce the Gritstone masonry to compliment the building stone. Rowsley yard were able to produce finished products such as worktops, bar tops, tiles and fire surrounds in Mandale Derbyshire Fossil Limestone from the Once a week Quarry.
The quarry enabled the fabrication yard at Rowsley to trial production in Limestone to see what we could make as finished products. We produced everything from vanity tops, Fireplaces to skirting boards and everything in between.
We moved our primary sawing operation from Youlgreave to Bradwell site which we still occupy to this day .The quarry produced blocks for finished products and the Primary Frame saw (to cut the blocks) was now installed at Bradwell. Large blocks from the Limetone quarry could then be cut into slabs. Slabs were sold to a wholesalers in London. The slabs normally 20mm and 30mm thick are used for worktops and tiles. Thicker slabs are cut for memorial stones, specialist hearths, table tops etc.
This operation at Bradwell now cuts Gritstone slabs for masonry to contrast with Limestone building products from the quarry, we have also installed in 2020 a secondary saw to produce gritstone masonry and cut Limestone tiles.
From a sales agency company in 1997 to a two site operations and a quarry in 25 years. Here is to the next 25 years.
We would like to thank all our customers old and new for all your support and we look forward to working with you all in the future.
