Westminster Stone Company Limited was founded by the present Chairman and his Wife, Paul and Jo Clifford in 1985 as a merger of their Landscape Gardening & Garden Design Company and their Concrete Paving Manufacturing Company.
Paul started his career as a Probationer of the RIBA, training to become an Architect. After a few years he decided an office life was not for him and, with Jo and their three children, he joined the British Army in the Royal Artillery for a further career, limited by his age. Serving in Oswestry, Detmold, Paderborn, Dortmund and Hong Kong, he resigned after 12 years, hoping he was still young and able enough to enjoy the next phase of their lives. They bought a Smallholding in the Welsh hills where their interest in Landscape Gardening and Garden Design took shape.
To compliment their landscape company in Clwyd and Shropshire Paul was licensed to manufacture Flagstones in Town & Country moulds. Running two small but growing companies it was decided to merge the two in 1985.
In 1989 Westminster Stone moved to its present 8 acre site on the English Welsh border near the pretty, market town of Ellesmere, Shropshire, from where business has grown and grown. After the move Westminster Stone began making its own moulds from its own sourced originals. It stopped using Town & Country moulds and soon achieved such a high degree of detail from its own moulds that it matched the original standards of Town & Country Paving.
In 1998 their Son, John Clifford, having been General Manager of Town & Country Paving for 12 years and having left 2 years earlier, joined Westminster Stone as a Director. By the 2000 Millennium Westminster Stone was achieving record monthly sales whilst Town & Country Paving was quietly winding down. In July 2001 the remains of Town & Country Paving was purchased by the Country's largest manufacturer and in October 2001 it left Sussex after almost 20 years. One of the last independent manufacturers was gone.
In July 2001 Westminster Stone was joined by Town & Country's General Manager. Who had worked with John for 12 years, and then taken over from him in 1996.
The year 2002 will see Westminster Stone expanding at home and abroad, and with John taking up the post of Managing Director the Chairman will spend more time on the French and German contacts who have applied to manufacture Westminster Stone products under licence.
