Coniston Stonecraft

Our story is one of Graft and Craft, we work hard at producing beautiful objects from our local stone, using the skills of our forebears to reflect our pride.

We have been manufacturing on the slopes of Coniston Old Man for nearly half a century, you could say we’re hefted to this landscape.

We only use locally quarried stone, Westmorland sea green, Brathay blue/grey or Baycliff limestone, it’s all part of our attempt to keep our eco footprint as small as possible, we use hydro electric power from the beck running by our workshops and cool our polishers and cutters using that same beck water rather than oil. We do not use imported Brazilian or Chinese slate for 2 reasons,

1. It’s been transported halfway around the world
2. It’s not as good – on so many levels.

We re a small craft company that can tell you who made each piece and which quarry the stone came from, we believe that working hard and doing the right thing will help us keep producing beautiful pieces for another half century.

Cumbria Life 2020 article - Coniston Stonecraft – a company whose heritage of handcrafted products, using stone from Lakeland quarries, goes back 40 years – has a new owner. 

Cumbrian-born businessman Brendan Donnelly believes he may have just bought one of the greenest enterprises in the Lake District. Coniston Stonecraft, which makes hand-crafted signs in its workshops on the fells above Coniston Water, has the tiniest of carbon footprints.

Power comes from Church Beck, running by its front door and into the tiny Hydro-Electric station that has generated electricity for Coniston, for more than a decade.

Water from Church Beck, running by the back door, is used as a substitute for oils to cool the machinery that cuts and grinds Lakeland slate, in the company’s workshops.

“We’re about as environmentally friendly as it’s possible to be,” said Mr Donnelly. “At the moment we still have to send out some of our slate orders in bubble-wrap – but we have plans to stop that soon.”

Mr Donnelly may also have the finest view from any office, anywhere in England. He ‘came home’ to take over Coniston Stonecraft in February, when there was still snow on the peaks that tower over his workshops.