Adam Frost

I’ve just had another interesting week. The highlight was getting my stone for Chelsea sorted. Marshalls have confirmed that they are supplying all my paving; we’re using Cromwell stone, which is a lovely English sand stone that I’ve used before, and it will look great next to the York handmade brick.

Also this week we’ve been at Clipsham Quarry, which is just outside of Stamford where I live. We’re using Clipsham stone for all of our walls including the special water and poetry feature walls and for the seating areas in the centre of the garden. The stone is being used in different forms; the water and poetry walls will be sawn and polished, which gives a smooth finish, and the seating wall will be cropped stone, to create a more natural look.

The detailed stonework (cutting, carving etc.) is being carried out by a local builder called Bowmans. They are real craftsmen who’ve done a lot of work all over the country on listed buildings and for the National Trust and the quality of their workmanship is second to none.

It’s superb to be working with all these people and I love the fact that we are using what we can from the UK - not just because we’re keeping our carbon footprint down, but it also shows the quality of what we produce in this country. As a nation, we are often too quick to knock what our country has to offer and we really do have some fantastic craftspeople out there. And we definitely must not lose that.

Have a look at the Clipsham Quarry website www.clipshamstone.co.uk It gives you an understanding of the history of the stone and I think you may be surprised to find where it has been used. Thanks to every one for all the help and support for Chelsea it will soon be here!