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Salisbury Cathedral is home to the Magna Carter and one of the UK's most visited and recognised Cathedrals. It is over 800 years old and has just completed a 37 year restoration project, with the final phase of conservation work to the East Gable and repair to the North and South Pinnacles, finishing in 2023 and the Cathedral finally sans scaffolding. Gary Price, Clerk of Works, has been involved his entire career and the work to restore has been a consistent high quality throughout nearly four decades.
This grand restoration project was awarded a win at the 2024 Natural Stone Awards in the Cathedrals Repair & Restoration category, which is testament to the craftmanship of the Cathedral Works and the use of Chicksgrove limestone, a locally sourced natural British stone that provides a significant heritage result.
Chicksgrove limestone is from the same seam of limestone which provided the original stone for the building of the Cathedral over 800 years ago. Our Chicksgrove Quarry have been supplying stone since 1987, from the very start of the restoration project. At the height of the works, it was supplying 75 tonnes a year and over the duration of the entire project, it has equated to nearly 2,000 tonnes, mainly compromising of block stone and some sawn six side material. The Clerk of Works, Gary Price, personally visited the quarry to select the block stone for the restoration work.
The quarry is located just 15 miles from the Cathedral and is the only active source of Chicksgrove in Britain. It is a fine grained creamy white limestone from the Upper Portland series.
image: Gary Price selecting stone at our quarry
Cathedral Architect: Dittrich Hudson Vasetti Architects
Main & Principal Stone Contractor: Salisbury Cathedral Works Department
Image: Lovell Stone Group & Salisbury Cathedral receiving their award at the Natural Stone Show Awards 2024
left to right: James Hart, Simon Hart, Lee Andrews, Gary Price, Richard Matthews