Chiselled features (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Chiselled features

If the work of the Filkins Stone Company's masons is good enough for one of England's finest churches, it's good enough for your home, suggests Tom Shepherd.

Hundreds of years of history were cloned and replaced in immaculate fashion in November after a storm blew a pinnacle off the parish church in Cirencester.

But now the yet-to-be-weathered turret stands as an exemplar of the skills of stone masons working in the Cotswolds today as well as those of the 16th century.

It was a typical commission for the Filkins Stone Company, which has been based in the quiet village near Lechlade for ten years - a bespoke design requiring hours of precise sculpting and a patient hand to position the stone in place.

Marketing director Tony Davies said: "It was a lovely piece of work. "Not all the pinnacles are identical when you get up to them so we picked up the bits and made another one from them."

The stone company itself is easily found. Uncut stone is piled up next to cut slates and bricks of all shapes and sizes adjacent to the Cotswold Woollen Weavers in the centre of Filkins.

But it would be far from the truth to imply that public buildings are its staple business. In fact, private commissions ranging from elegant water features and garden monuments to grand fireplaces take up most of the time of the eight or so masons.

"If it's made of stone we will make it," said Tony. "We will do anything from a one-off sill and lintel to a major restoration. Everything is handmade, and we are also pretty unique in terms of somebody being able to come here and see the workshop and the retail area in a clean and friendly environment."

There is even a caf behind the workshop, and people are free to visit and spend a couple of hours wondering around the wool shop and stone showroom to get a sense of the kind of traditional Cotswold work that goes on there.

Tony added: "People never fail to put their hands on the things we have - it's so tactile. I can't fail to enthuse about it. I look at a specific piece and think, what a piece of workmanship.

"The limestone floor in the display room is 150 million years old - it hasn't come out of a machine and is obviously unique. It's not like a carpet, which will wear out; it's a stone floor, which will be there for centuries and you'll never get bored of the design. It certainly beats the hell out of buying a new car."

At the offices out of which the stone company is run a photographic record of all its recent commissions is kept on computer.

A church in Burford has had a 160-year-old weather vane replaced, while scores of commissions for coping stones, ornamental garden features and wall covings are also on file.

Whole houses in the Cotswolds and surrounding counties have been given the Filkins Stone Company treatment, and its marketing director is keen to bring in commissions of all shapes and sizes.

He said: "There is a short maxim I came up with the other day for the business: 'extraordinary, elegant solutions'. It may be beefy stuff and it may be heavy, but it doesn't have to look inelegant."

For more information about the Filkins Stone Company call 01367 860660.