news working to encourage greater public interest in and awareness of the stone built heritage of england and the threats it faces encourage the use of english stone for the public benefit and to ensure the availability of the stone required for the maintenance of the built heritage and new build st paul s cathedral portland limestone why use building stone stone has been used for building and roofing for many hundreds of years . many of our historic stone buildings are protected by legislation to help ensure their survival but they all deteriorate with age and erosion by the elements . it is important that these valuable cultural assets are repaired and maintained and adequate supplies of suitable stone are essential . stone for repair and maintenance must be compatible with the original for technical reasons the wrong stone can hasten future damage and for aesthetic reasons the wrong stone may harm the appearance of the structure . therefore it is essential to secure stone from either the original source or a closely similar source . to do that we need to know where particular building or roofing stones were originally worked and be able to obtain planning permission to extract more stone when required . stone is also vital for new buildings . many conservation areas include stone buildings and new development in these areas should be compatible and so a supply of similar stone for construction is required . even where there are no historic stone buildings the aesthetic appeal of new development can be greatly enhanced by the use of stone both externally and internally . working stone for new buildings also helps to make quarrying operations economically viable in the periods between the sporadic contracts to supply stone for conservation . broadway marlstone why use english building stone many buildings in england were constructed using locally quarried stone as it was difficult and costly to haul materials for long distances . other buildings used stone from good sources further away such as portland stone and sandstones from yorkshire transported by sea canals and later railways . stone from scotland wales and france has also been used in england . ideally supplies of all these stones must be safeguarded so that authentic material is available whatever its origin . because of both the importance of using compatible materials for repair of historic buildings and the need to construct attractive new buildings that maintain local and regional distinctiveness it is vital that adequate supplies of english stone remain available . a vigorous english stone industry is essential for maintaining our national heritage and the character and appearance of our cities towns and villages ... read on why use local stone pdf presentation 1.2 mb english stone forum channel business centre ingles manor castle hill avenue folkestone kent ct20 2rd email site updated oct 2009 ... ... .