W E Ford & Son originally was a family haulage company operated from their base in Luton with depots at Waterfoot and Wigan.

The family base was moved to the Rossendale area in 1974 and in 1980 the four senior members of the Ford family took over the site of the former Accrington brickworks quarry overlooking the Cliviger gorge near Bumley. The site required extensive remedial work in removing the old brick kilns, crushing plant and settlement tanks before the landscaping could proceed.

The company operated under Mr G Ford, sold the carboniferous shales to brick making companies and extracted the Dyneley Knoll Flagstone bed to produce paving stones and walling stones.

In order to restore the site in the long term an Agent/Surveyor, Mr P Browne and Environmental Consultant Mr N Robinson of Robinson Fletcher were retained to develop the site as a high-tech landfill operation. This entailed an application for a new Planning Permissions and a Tipping Licence from the relevant LCC Authorities. These were obtained in 1982. Site preparation and detailed designs and modification continued until 1991 when the site was described as the best engineered site in Lancashire. The Landfill site was opened on January 11 1991 for industrial and domestic waste deposits.

Outlets in Bacup, Burnley and Manchester city centre.

We always strive to meet our clients needs and our stone can be seen all over the globe, Antigua, New York and Moscow to name just a few of the worldwide destinations.

The millions of year old stone is extracted from its natural beds and shaped into rectangular flagstones by our skilled stonemasons.

The top quality flagstones have a flat, but not smooth surface - suitable for interior and exterior uses alike. Supplied in a grey/buff colourway it is an ideal choice for modern and period uses.

The quality riven flagstones have a character look, each one being unique in its original extracted form. Solid stone blocks are sawn by diamond tipped blades on the framesaws and crosscut saw producing a find sawn finish for external paving or interior where texture is of paramount importance. Both blue/grey and buff/brown are available in thickness to suit any application.

The full range of natural stone products can be seen on the product and project pages of this web site.