Stone Laying · Cotswolds · Wiltshire
Natural Cotswold stone walling, cladding and repair, laid by hand with the eye of a specialist. We match new stone to old properties so the finished wall looks like it's always been there.
40 years in the trade · Family-run · Free site visits · Written estimates in 3–5 working days
Overview
Cotswold stone is unforgiving. There are no straight edges to hide behind, no consistent coursing to lean on, and every stone has to be chosen, turned and placed with the eye. Do it well and it looks effortless. Do it badly and it looks like a garden centre rockery. Stone is a specialist's trade, and it's one we take seriously: the same three-person team, working the stone with our hands, matching what's already there.
New natural stone garden and boundary walls, retaining walls, feature elevations on extensions, stone cladding to modern blockwork, dry-stone-look walling with hidden mortar, coping and cock-and-hen coping, quoin stones and hand-shaped detail work, and repair of collapsed or leaning historic stone walls across the Cotswolds and Wiltshire.
Owners of Cotswold-stone properties who want any new work to sit properly against the existing house. Homeowners extending or replacing a boundary wall in a Conservation Area. Self-builders who want the front elevation in natural stone. Rural landowners with collapsed field walls that need putting back up honestly.
New extension where the elevation must be stone to match the property or satisfy planning. Boundary or garden wall being built or rebuilt. Existing stone wall showing bulges, leaning sections, missing copings, or stones that have worked loose. Cladding a new blockwork wall or garage in stone so it doesn't stick out against the rest of the property.
A stone wall is only as good as the person choosing where each stone goes. Coursing that's too regular looks fake. Coursing that's too random looks amateur. Mortar joints that are too wide, or too flush, or the wrong colour, ruin the whole wall. This isn't a trade you learn from a video: it's decades of picking up stones, turning them, and putting them down in the right place.
The cost of getting it wrong
Bad stonework is expensive to fix: because usually the whole wall has to come down and start again.
Machine-cut stone laid in perfect courses with wide mortar joints looks like cladding, not walling. On a Cotswold property it stands out from twenty yards away, and it stays looking wrong for the life of the building.
Cement-heavy mortar on soft Cotswold limestone is harder than the stone itself. Instead of the mortar wearing back, the stone spalls: losing face after face until the wall has to be rebuilt.
A traditional stone wall needs stones that tie the two faces together at intervals. Skip them and the two faces separate over time: you see it as a bulge in the middle course, followed a winter or two later by a collapse.
Copings are what keep the wall dry. Get them wrong: too flat, badly bedded, mismatched: and water sits on the wall, gets into every joint, freezes, and pushes stones apart.
Common mistake, The most common mistake we see: builders who lay brick every day treating stone the same way. Stone isn't brick. Coursing, mortar and joint profile all have to change, and the mind-set has to change with them.
Our process
Same honest four-step system as every job we take on.
Tell us what you're planning. We reply within one working day and book a free site visit.
Dale walks the job, looks at the existing stone or the property it needs to match, and talks through options: reclaimed vs new, walling stone vs ashlar, hidden mortar vs raked joint.
Itemised estimate covering supply of stone, mortar, foundations and labour. No verbal quotes.
Booked in, delivered on time, built in staged payments, handed over cleanly. Stone off-cuts are stacked tidily for the next repair or removed on request.
The benefits
New stone chosen and mixed on-site to blend with what's there: not laid straight from the pallet in perfect batches.
Lime or lime-cement mixes on older walls to protect the stone; joint colour matched so the wall reads as one piece.
No two courses the same, no vertical joints stacked, larger stones at intervals to bond the wall: the way Cotswold walls have always been built.
Proper coping, correct fall, joints struck to shed rain, no mortar-cap left to crack and let water in.
Working in villages and market towns where planning cares how walls look: we care about it too.
The same family will still be here in ten years if you ever need us back: because we live in the area.
In detail
The technical and material notes that separate a proper stone wall from a decorative one.
Cotswold walling stone (natural, reclaimed and new-quarried), Bath stone and other oolitic limestones, sandstones for repair-matching where the property calls for it, and imported walling stone where budget or supply dictates. We'll always tell you the honest trade-off between reclaimed and new before you buy.
Natural hydraulic lime (NHL 2 or 3.5) for older walls and Conservation Area work, it stays soft enough to protect the stone and lets the wall breathe. Cement-lime mixes for garden walls where planning doesn't dictate lime. Joint colour matched with the right sand: a small detail that changes everything about how the wall looks.
Traditional mortared random-coursed stone walls (up to 1.8m without piers, higher with proper design), retaining walls with correct hidden drainage, dry-stone-look walls with concealed mortar for gardens, feature walls on extensions and porches, stone cladding on modern blockwork, boundary walls with cock-and-hen or half-round coping.
Front elevation of a new extension that must be stone. Collapsed field boundary. Bulging or leaning boundary walls in villages across the Cotswolds. Replacing missing quoins on stone cottages. Cladding a new garage in stone so it doesn't jar with the main house. Repair to walls damaged by tree roots, vehicle impact or freeze-thaw over hard winters.
Our stonework is almost entirely residential and rural: country properties, cottages, garden walls, small extensions. We'll take on light commercial where the work suits (school boundary walls, small office extensions in stone-vernacular villages) but we don't chase heritage restoration contracts.
Recent works
It varies with wall height, stone type (new vs reclaimed) and whether you already have the stone on site. We give you a written, itemised estimate after a free site visit so there are no surprises.
Either. Some clients already have stone stacked from a demolition; most ask us to supply. We'll price both ways and explain the trade-off.
Typically up to 1.8m without engineered piers or design. Taller than that, or a retaining wall over about 1.2m, needs proper foundation design: we'll flag it and get the right advice.
Boundary walls above 1m fronting a highway and 2m elsewhere generally need permission, and Conservation Areas add extra rules. Dale will flag it at the site visit: we don't build walls that shouldn't be built.
We build walls that read as dry stone, with mortar hidden well back from the face. True heritage dry-stone rebuilds are a specialist heritage trade; we'll be honest about whether we're the right fit.
A garden wall of 6–10 metres is usually a week to ten days depending on height and detailing. Weather affects lime-mortar work in winter: we plan around it.
Yes, £5m public liability and £10m employers' liability. Documents available before we start.
Yes: those are core patches for stonework, along with Fairford, Faringdon, Witney, Highworth and Swindon.
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Read moreReady when you are
Free site visit at a time that suits. Written, itemised estimate in 3–5 working days. Staged payments, nothing due before we start.
