stoneCIRCLE is the trading name of B&V Masonry Ltd which Bernard Vanhinsbergh, our father, founded in 1968.
A highly skilled self-taught stone carver and letter cutter he believed his customers deserved superb quality and peerless service.
– Jeff and Steve Vanhinsbergh, stoneCIRCLE directors
His commitment to his craft combined with a constant search for new and innovative techniques remains at the heart of the company today.
Our customers invest great effort and resources to create exceptional buildings, rooms, monuments and artworks and we believe these investments should not be compromised. Our masonry has been the choice for clients, architects, designers and developers for over 50 years each of whom believe that they and their clients recognise and deserve the best.
To be part of your project means a great deal to us and we at stoneCIRCLE hope that you will be inspired by our work illustrated in the following pages.
our passion
Tradition. Technology. Quality.
The presence of stone in architecture goes back centuries, from the pyramids of ancient Egypt, temples of Greece, Roman palaces and Gothic cathedrals to the finest homes around the world.
Our passion is to take nature’s most enduring resource and transform it into the finest finishes, furniture and artefacts using traditional stonemasonry skills and the very latest technology.
In the nearly 5 decades from its foundation, the company has developed into one of the largest in the UK with a team of skilled and dedicated staff striving to deliver exceptional service to our customers. We are committed to providing knowledgeable advice on all of the materials we work with and with access to the world’s quarries, we can source the perfect stone for your project.
We have created showrooms and galleries that inspire and inform where you can see, touch and feel the beauty of the finished surfaces and of the slabs we use to make them. We have built modern production spaces equipped with the latest technology for manufacturing of the highest quality.
With the continued faith of our customers, we shall build upon our reputation for superior quality and service for the next 50 years.
a blend of old and new
perhaps unique to our industry is the fact that the stone working technology has not supplanted the hand skills which are still as important as ever
The sequence of events which brings natural stone from the quarry to the home has not changed much since stone entered the homes of our ancestors. First, large blocks of stone are cut from the quarry. Then, from those blocks, thin pieces of stone called slabs are cut and are usually polished on one face.
The type of machinery used in this age-old sequence has changed dramatically over the years. Perhaps unique to our industry, however, is that the new stone-working technology has not supplanted traditional hand skills, which are still as important as ever.
Our factory is one of the most modern in the UK, having been extended in 2015. The majority of our machines are computer numerically controlled (CNC), giving great accuracy and improved productivity. However, our masons still carry out the final finishing and quality control by hand.
Nowadays, we are free from the ‘hard graft’ experienced by previous generations of stonemasons. That allows the artistic talents, creativity, and skill of our modern-day masons to develop and be expressed in the stonework we produce.
our environmental responsibilities
We take our environmental responsibilities seriously. Rain and production water recycling make us almost self-sufficient in water, and solar panels provide 40 kWh of electricity. In addition, surplus stone from production is collected and crushed for use in construction.
We intend to continue investing in the latest technology and the skills of our workforce, as we have throughout our history, for as long as our clients continue to specify the wonderful natural product that is our lifeblood. We hope that you will be there with us on the journey.
installation
We don’t just fabricate the stone for our clients. We also have our own experienced installation teams who work across the country, with dedicated teams in central London, where a lot of the projects on which we work are situated.