Flamed Blue Pennant paving from the Forest of Dean

摘要

Nick Horton, the Managing Director of Forest of Dean Stone Firms, knew he was missing out on sales by not having flame textured Blue Pennant paving on offer. But his attempts at flaming his Forest Pennant sandstone had simply caused it to blow apart. He knew the stone became harder the further down he went into the Bixhead Quarry that his Forrest Pennant comes from and he wondered if the stone further down still would be hard enough to flame. There was a (relatively) easy way to find out because the stone at Bixhead was once mined and a mine opening still existed at the quarry, albeit largely blocked off. "A light went on in my head," says Nick. "I thought I had to go down and have a look." He obtained permission last year to open up the portal and started to clear away the undergrowth and remove the debris from the mouth of the mine. "We took a block off the edge of the portal and it flamed like a dream, so I told my guys to start digging in the quarry."