BUY BRITISH MEMORIALS
95%+ of all headstones currently erected in the UK are imported. Buying British stone helps support local businesses and is a fitting memorial to a loved one.
Buying British means you will be BUYING GREEN – An imported headstone has 2 to 5 times the embedded carbon (carbon footprint) compared to a British stone. Buying British means you will be BUYING ETHICALLY – Indian and Chinese quarries often have social conditions, labour practices, health and safety conditions and poor environmental protection. All our British stone comes from responsibly managed quarries all of which we have personally visited. Buying British means you will be BUYING BEAUTY – British stones fit into the landscape, environment and our churchyards better than imported stones.
the cerrig range of british stone
hopton wood limestone
This classic English limestone from Derbyshire is a hard wearing cream to buff coloured stone which holds letters and carving particularly well. It was an important memorial and building stone in the 19th and early 20th centuries and used by sculptors including Henry Moore and for hundreds of thousands of WW1 and WW2 war graves. Cerrig are proud to be able to provide you with Hopton Wood limestone from one of the original 6 Hopton Wood quarries.
cornish granite
The granite backbone of Cornwall was formed around 400m years ago.The granite has a characteristic light grey background mottled with silver and grey. It has been used for building, paving and memorial stone for centuries. Cornish granite is hard wearing and works well with pitched edges to create a more natural look to a headstone.
welsh slate
Quarried from 500 million year old slate
deposits in North Wales. This even coloured slate is usually polished to a honed finish which feels almost like silk. Today few remaining quarries still operate and only one produces the blue grey slate in quantities suitable for memorials. The slate is very inert and water resistant and makes a particularly resilient headstone. Its timeless stark beauty takes letter carving very well makes it very popular choice.
portland limestone
Quarried from the limestone deposits on Portland Bill. Portland limestone is perhaps the best known British stone, used for centuries for buildings, particularly in London, as well as for thousands of war memorials and is still used today for military memorials today. Cerrig are one of the largest manufacturers of Portland memorials and the Portland limestone.
welsh granite
Welsh granite has been quarried on the north coast of Wales since the 1830s. This extremely hard granite stone has been used for millennia for pre-historic monuments such as 'Druid’s Circle' which sits above the site of the quarry in North Wales. The granite is a dark grey/green colour when cut and honed. We particularly like this stone with rough or pitched edges (see shapes) and left looking as natural as possible.
derbyshire sandstone
Derbyshire white sandstone was widely used as a monumental stone in the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the UK and was even exported to Europe at the height of its popularity. Nowadays this light grey fine grained sandstone is available again for memorials. The stone will weather beautifully and almost become part of the landscape.
BUY BRITISH MEMORIALS & SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES
memorial shapes and sizes
Because we make all our own headstones any of our stones can be ordered in any design, but we do also offer standard sizes and shapes. The examples shown below are available in all of our stones: Hopton Wood, Portland, Welsh and Cornish granite, Yorkstone and Welsh Slate. Our standard range of headstones with plinths are all 3" thick and are 30" high x 24" wide and for those fixed directly in the ground they are 32"– 42" above the ground and 18" – 22"– 24" wide.
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We have a good supply of Welsh slate natural shaped headstones in stock, but we are also able to cut more "natural" shaped headstones on our waterjet cutters and chip the edges to give a bespoke natural look if nature hasn’t provided a stone which suits.
BUY BRITISH MEMORIALS & SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES
headstone motifs and edges
We are also able to carve designs into the headstone for you using our CNC carving tools – just send us a pdf of the design that you want. Here are some examples of recent carving work we have undertaken. Slate, limestone and sandstone can be “V” carved, while granite is sandblasted on our CNC blasting machine.
Edges can be pitched to give a more natural “rock-like” feel to the stones. Slate edges cap be chipped to create a uniquely natural feel to the stone.
