Formpave launch new range of British Stone

A couple of months back in the review of the External Works bash, I mentioned that Formpave had some exciting news about a new product range and that I'd been promised the chance to break the news on the Pavingexpert website as soon as all the i's were crossed and the t's dotted. Well, the time has come and I can now break my vow of omerta and reveal the new range of British natural stone paving.

Royal Forest Pennant Natural Stone Paving is a native British Stone that is quarried and sawn in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, just down the road from Formpave's HQ in Coleford. For those of you unfamiliar with Pennant Stone, it's a fine-grained sandstone that is as popular in the West Country and Wales as Yorkstone is in the north of England, or Whinstone in the north-east and Scotland. It's hard-wearing, with excellent abrasion and slip resistance values, and in its natural state is found in a range of colours from grey-blues through to warm buffs and ochres, often with banding of colours within individual stones.

Royal Forest Pennant Blue
Royal Forest Pennant Blue

Formpave will be supplying the stone in two colour option - "blue" and "mixed". The blue is a serene grey-blue, while the mixed contains bands and swirls of the more iron-rich colours. Both will be available in a sawn or shot-blasted finish (the shot-blasted version has an even higher slip resistance value). For standard orders, the flags will be supplied as 50mm thick, in 300, 450, and 600mm guage width and random lengths, but the company will be more than happy to supply paving in any size or thickness for special projects.

Formpave's Project Manager, Simon Hart, told Pavingexpert,

Royal Forest Pennant Mixed
Royal Forest Pennant Mixed
textures
Blue Shot-blasted - Mixed Shot-blasted - Mixed Sawn - Blue sawn

I have to agree with Simon. We are a geologically-rich set of islands with more than 5,000 years history of using our native stone for paving and building, but the flood of cheap imported stone over the past decade or so has been grabbing more than its fair share of attention and caused some designers and specifiers to forget just how stunning our native stone can be. For heritage projects, for those looking for a more traditional styling, and for those determined to support the stone indsutry in Britain and Ireland, this is a very welcome addition to the library of paving materials.

There'll be more info on the new Royal Forest Pennant website that's due to be launched shortly, but for now you can gloat over the PDF that can be downloaded from this site , or call the dedicated "Pennant" line at Formpave on 01594 838 683

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