Our History

1927

Albion Stone Works formed into a limited company

The Company was based in Merton, London, with a workshop for working mainly Portland Stone for London projects

1955

The Company was purchased by Harold Poultney

1965

Harold’s son David Poultney becomes Managing Director

1979

The Company secured the lease for its first Portland Stone quarry, Bowers Quarry, from the Crown Estate

1982

The Company secured the leases for the remaining Crown Estate Portland Stone quarries including Independent, Jordans and Admiralty Quarry

1989

The current Factory site at Easton Lane was purchased and manufacturing was relocated from Southwest London to Portland

1991

Harold’s grandson Michael becomes the Managing Director

1996

Albion Stone introduced wire saw technology into the Portland Stone industry.

This new wire saw technology revolutionised the extration process

1998

Planning permission was secured for the first Portland Stone trial mine at Bowers Quarry

1999

Royal visit by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh to Albion Stone's Quarries and Factory

2001

Planning permission was secured for the Stonehills Portland Stone mine

Stonehills Mine is the first colmpletley new Mine which is not an extension of an existing quarry

 

2002

The Bowers Mine trials began

2005

The trials at the Bowers Mine were successfully completed and a new mining planning permission was prepared for Jordans Quarry

2006

High Wall extraction in Bowers Quarry Commences and Portland Inmosthay group of Quarries are purchased

High wall extraction is a series of small mines from the quarry face to the sites boundary.  Inmosthay Quarries were purchased to boost the reserves, but most importantly to give an easier access to the Jordans Quarry, which will become Jordans Mine

2008

Mining starts at the southern part of Jordans Quarry

Following the voluntary surrender of the Jordans quarrying permission, thereby allowing the Portland Cricket Club to continue to use the Red Triangle Cricket Pitch whilst the stone underneath is extracted.

2011

We Installed £500,000 of solar panels to our factory roof

In a joint project with The Crown Estate, we installed 800 solar panels. The panels were expected to generate more than 150,000 kWh of electricity per year - the equivalent to the annual consumption of 50 houses - and will reduce our carbon footprint by 80 tonnes per year

2015

The quarrying operations were completed

The final extraction from the Jordans Quarry and all production switches to the more environmentally sensitive mining operations

2016

Extraction of the cap stone in front of what will be the mine portals to the Stonehills mine was started

2018

'Excellent' in our BES 6001 assessment

The only natural stone company in the world to hold an ‘Excellent’ rating. 

2019

The first breakthrough between Bowers and Jordans mines, creating one working area

2022

Stonehills Mine is now fully operational