Sandstone & brick masonry · Buttercross · the market-town yard, third generation
Stone the colour of four o’clock.
Giltedge lays the golden sandstone of the Buttercross valley — repointed in butter-tinted lime matched to the chip, quoins and arches cut to the drawing, veneer hung on stainless the weather cannot eat. The town has been golden since 1670; our part is keeping it that way.
Pointing runs April to October, and the market-town calendar fills first — book the survey by mid-March for a spring rake. Arches, quoins and hearths are cut in the yard all winter, so the stone is ready when the weather is.
Services
The yard’s crafts
01
Repointing in butter-tinted lime
Joints raked by hand to twice their width and flushed full in two passes with natural hydraulic lime pigmented to the chip from your own wall — NHL 3.5 in the field, NHL 5 at copings and parapets. The tint matters as much as the chemistry: a golden wall pointed in grey has been repaired, not restored.
02
Quoins, veneer & anchorage
Corner quoins dressed at the yard and hung with full-bed and thin stone on 316 stainless Z-anchors at sixteen inches on centre, over a two-layer weather barrier with base flashing and weep vents. The quoins carry the eye; the anchors carry the wall — both are on the drawing you keep.
03
Arches over the entries
Segmental and semicircular arches rebuilt on timber centering: voussoirs cut and numbered at the yard, laid from both spring lines, keystone set last, centering struck only after the ring closes. The arch over a Buttercross door is the first thing the market sees on a Saturday — it gets cut accordingly.
The family ledger
Three generations of golden work
The yard has pointed, cut and hung the valley’s stone since 1954 — the figures below are counted from the ledger books, all three of which survive and all three of which are on the shelf behind the bench.
Recent work
The golden book
Six jobs from around Buttercross — repoints, quoins, arches and one hearth that keeps the market office warm on a Tuesday. Every owner will let you stand in the street and admire their wall; this is a town that takes that seriously.
How it goes
Survey to strike
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Visit one
The survey & the chip
A mortar chip leaves an inconspicuous joint and is matched — wall age sets the lime, the chip sets the tint, and the street sets the standard. You keep a written square-foot number, held sixty days.
Week 1
Rake by hand
Scaffolding up, sheets down, joints raked by hand to twice their width and vacuumed clean. No grinders — a spinning wheel burns the arris, and a burnt arris on a golden wall is a scar in daylight.
Weeks 2–4
Point, cut, hang
Butter-tinted lime flushed in two passes and struck to the original profile; quoins and voussoirs from the winter stock bedded as the drawing says, anchors and weeps renewed where the drawing says that too.
Week 6
Cure & strike
Carbonation under mist and covers, the final brush at leather-hard, and the twenty-five-year warranty signed into your name. The scaffold comes down on a Friday; the market notices by Saturday.
The town council had two quotes for the shambles and a strong opinion about colour. Giltedge matched the lime to a chip from the wall itself, wetted it against the stone in daylight, and the opinion dissolved. The joints now read as if the 1890s mason had simply carried on.
Our shop arch had been filled with a concrete lintel some time in the sixties. They cut a proper ring of voussoirs at the yard, closed it on centering over a long weekend, and Saturday footfall stops to look at the keystone. The keystone.
The quoins on the corn exchange were spalling and the heritage officer was braced for an argument. The yard’s match was approved wet in twenty minutes, the anchors were on the drawing, and the file went through without a single letter. Nobody sends a letter about anchors. They should.
Colour, lime, anchors
Asked at the market cross
Why does the lime get tinted?
Because chemistry without colour is only half a restoration. The lime is matched to a chip from your own wall and pigmented to it — wetted, in daylight, approved by you before a joint is filled. A golden wall pointed in grey has been repaired; it has not been restored.
Lime or portland on the old work?
Lime, on everything before 1930 and most things since in this valley. Lime is softer than the stone and brick around it, and sacrificial — it weathers out so the masonry doesn’t have to. Portland is stronger than old masonry, so winter breaks the wall units to save the mortar: exactly backwards.
What do the anchors carry on a quoin corner?
The stone and the corner both. 316 stainless Z-anchors and dowel pins at sixteen inches on centre, into a scratch coat over a two-layer weather barrier, with flashing and weeps at the base. The quoins carry the eye; the anchors carry the wall — and both are numbered on the drawing.
When can the arch centering come out?
Only after the ring closes and the mortar has taken its initial set — voussoirs laid from both spring lines, keystone last. Striking it early is the one mistake an arch never forgives, and no schedule ever justified it.
Do you work outside the valley?
Thirty miles in a straight line, further for arches and hearths — the winter cutting bench makes distance cheap, because the stone arrives ready. The survey is free within the thirty.
Twenty-five years, chip to keystone
If a tinted joint we pointed fails, an anchor we set lets go, or an arch we rebuilt settles inside twenty-five years, we return and correct it free — and the warranty follows the house, not the invoice.
sunstone@giltedge.example · Buttercross · surveys year-round
Bring us the wall, or the street.
Year built, what is spalling or sprouting, and a photo if you can manage one. The survey brings the chip kit, the tint match and a written square-foot number inside the week — the market notices good walls on Saturdays, and so do we.