These are just a very few of the testmonials sent to us by our fantastic customers!
April 2011.
Hi Helen,
House number arrived safe and sound today.
Very pleased with the quality and the speedy service.
Have no hesitation in recommending your company to family and friends
Kind Regards
Frederick
Hi Steve, Many thanks for the celtic number, we are over the moon with it! The craftsmanship is excellent and the sandstone really is a good match for the cottage.If you are ever in the area drop in for a cuppa and see your work in situ! kind regards Stephie.
Helen,
The house sign arrived today as planned by the courier, and we are absolutely delighted !
Arriving on a sunny day enabled us to see what it would be like in full sun, and the shadows cast by the lettering make it very legible.
we will send you a photo in due course of its ultimate destination in Italy !!
Regards & Best Wishes
Tony
Hi Helen, Thank you so much for making the plaque - it is really
wonderful and suits the house style and surroundings beutifully. Thanks again, so much. Deborah
Helen
Arrived to day. Thank you. Everything OK. It looks great Fantastic A pleasure to do business with you. An excellent product and excellent service from start to finish.Thank you again.
Kind Regards
Nick
(Feb 2011) Hello Helen,
Our house signs have arrived amid much excitement and we are delighted with them! I absolutely love the autumn sandstone and I can't wait to see them in situ (maybe this weekend). Also, thanks to your efficient service we are able to keep the builders happy--and hopefully on schedule as they construct my annex (The Orangery) which is attached to my daughter and family's house (Saffron House) where I currently reside.
Once again many thanks for a friendly and efficient service and a most agreeable product.
Best wishes
Janet
(Feb 2011) WOW Helen
That was an extremely nice surprise. I received the engraving this morning and I was overjoyed.
It looks so nice....just in time for Valentine......I didn't think I would get it this early.....
She will be so impressed when I give Sxxxxx her gift.....Ahmed
(Feb 2011) Hi Helen,
I can confirm that we have safely received the stone engraving. We bought it as a gift for our daughter and son-in-law for their new house and we are all delighted with the result.
Yours sincerely
Chris
(Feb 2011) Hi Helen
Thank you, we have just received the sign. We are delighted, it is perfect and beautiful. It's a shame it's going ouside where we can't see it!
Thank you so much for your patience in endeavouring to get it just right, we really appreciate it.
Kind Regards.....
Shaorn
(Jan 2011) Hi Helen
I am sorry I did not reply earlier but I have had a dreaded virus and not been able to do anything for over a week. Anyway I can't thank you enough for the engraved house sign plaque, when it arrived it was better than I had imagined. I had bought it for my partner David who had just gained planning permission to build a house on our farm; this is why I wanted it for Christmas (it came well in time too.) I just wanted to say your service and quality of workmanship is second to none and if in the future I need anything else I will be back in touch. Many thanks again...
Jenny
(Jan 2011)
Hello Helen,
Happy New Year to you all
I am writing to say thank you all so much for the Plews Cottage house sign.
Not only did you cope with our prevarications and delays, but you also
had the snow for couriers to contend with. It arrived, I hear, on
Tuesday 21st December and looks absolutely fabulous. Both Lindsey and
Ian are delighted with it and look forward to warmer weather when the
rendering of the house, and the placement of the sign can go ahead!
Thank you so much..
Maggie
Hi Helen,
My Mum received the house sign today and she absolutely loves it. Thanks you so much for your exquisite work and professional, prompt service - especially at this time of year! Much appreciated...
Many thanks,
Steph Breen
Yorkstone is one of those quintessential English stones that everyone has heard about but how many people actually know what a very special stone Yorkstone really is?
Of all the natural stones quarried in the UK York stone is probably the most versatile.
Used for paving, house signs, headstones, fireplaces and all types of buildings from churches to office blocks. Yorkstone is now increasingly the stone of choice for quality house signs.
Yorkstone is a sedimentary sandstone, that is a stone laid down from the sediment of long disappeared lakes and seas. This process means that all sedimentary sandstones are to a greater or lesser degree layered or stratified.
The strata on some sedimentary stones such as Portland or Bath stone are deep and each layer or strata can produce a different class of stone some with fine clear stone, some with heavy fossilised shell. However, York stone is laid down in fine layers of just a few millimetres thick per layer.
It is this layering that gives Yorkstone much of its character and its strength. The stone is constructed in layers or strata, that can be seen in the edge of house signs made from the stone. This stata forms a dense hard stone with greater tensile strength than most limestones.
It is this tensile strength and hardness that makes York stone so suitable for application where strenth is important such as paving and house signs. Yorkstone paving slabs have an incredible capacity for wear and tear, and today old York paving originally laid down a hundred or more years ago is a prized and expensive re-claimed commodity.
The colour of new Yorkstone tends to be mainly in varied shades of buff to grey, but old Yorkstone was commonly available in greys and dark browns as well as a true blue!
This variety of colour and hue made Yorkstone the material of choice for fireplace builders in the eighties. As a young man I built hundreds of these fireplaces, sadly out of fashion now of course.
Yorkstone is ideal for engraving as it seldom shows sign of the fossil shell that can mar the finish of other limestones and the colour generally remains fairly uniform throughout the slab or block, though can darken when a new layer or strata is cut through. The density of the grain means that engravings and carvings on house signs and commemorative plaques are crisp and sharp.
This uniformity and consistency is one of the reasons Yorkstone has always been valued for its suitability for engraving. It has been used for generations for headstones and today is being increasingly chosen as the material of choice for engraved house signs and commemorative plaques.
Yorkstone has other attributes less well known, for instance did you know that it is an excellent fine abrasive?
All stone masons yard and workshops used to have a block of Yorkstone and a large hand turned Yorkstone wheel for sharpening chisels.
Lubricated with water the stone was often the only sharpening stone available. The swords at Agincourt were probably sharpened on a Yorkstone wheel!
Another use was to finish off the lead filled lettering on marble headstones. After the lead had been hammered into the finished letters, they were rubbed over with a piece of York stone and water, this both flattened and blackened the lead at the same time.
Lastly the reason I love this stone is its ability to age and weather gracefully.
Old York stone headstones, walls and house signs hundreds of years old, covered in moss, and the grime of history with the inscriptions all but unreadable are still very beautiful and the quality of the stone still shines through!
One word of warning, the dust created by dry cutting Yorkstone can be a serious health risk, if you are going to work Yorkstone yourself work it outside, and always wear a proper respirator or better still cut it wet - and wear a mask!
Article by Stephen Walker.