Forest Pennant transforms Bath railway station

Forest Pennant, a leading natural stone specialist based in the Forest of Dean, has recently supplied Royal Forest Pennant sandstone paving and setts for the regeneration of Bath Railway Station and the adjacent Vaults Development.

Funded by the Southgate Limited Partnerships, the re-development scheme sets out to transform the 19th century station while retaining its historic character. The development will incorporate a new, open space within the station itself, incorporating restaurants and kiosk units.

“The Railway Station redevelopment is the latest phase in the Southgate Bath regeneration project, aiming reaffirm the city as a desirable destination of choice. By integrating a shopping district with one the city’s central travelling hot spots, we are supporting that critical first impression for tourists while extending the city centre’s reach and presence,” commented Martin Tresidder, senior project manager of the Southgate development at Queensberry Real Estate.

“The entire development   is sympathetic to the Georgian architecture of the town and the history it represents. The town is one of the only working cities to achieve World Heritage Site status, so we intend to incorporate the ancestry of the town across all renovation schemes.”

A total provision of 2700m2 of the natural paving was supplied to the regeneration scheme, with an additional 500m2 of accompanying sandstone setts. In order to accommodate for changing accessibility schedules combined with on-site storage restrictions, Forest Pennant operated a just-in-time manufacture to meet the programme schedule, as dictated by Southgate and BANES. The mixed-colour stone, quarried exclusively in the Forest of Dean, fully compliments the honey-coloured Bath limestone, sourced in the region and used extensively throughout the town’s envelope.

Simon Martin, Operations Manager at Bath and North East Somerset Council, commented; “Forest Pennant sandstone is an excellent natural landscaping solution which compliments Bath’s historic public realm palette of materials.

"We endorse the use of sustainable products wherever possible and have been impressed by Forest Pennant’s aim to become carbon neutral, minimising their carbon footprint with innovative measures such as the implementation of the water turbines to fuel the plant. We hope to continue to incorporate Royal Forest Pennant in future regeneration projects, as a preferred hard landscaping solution for Bath.”

Forest Pennant supplies natural stone for both commercial and domestic use, extracting the indigenous Pennant stone from its very own quarry at Barnhill, Royal Forest of Dean.  Using sustainable extraction techniques, the locality of the quarry and the natural elements of the stone itself makes it an integral, environmentally-beneficial material for building, architecture and masonry in the UK; suiting both traditional and modern methods of construction.