St. Blaise ltd ~ The Company's History

ST BLAISE LTD ~
THE COMPANY TODAY
ST BLAISE ~ HIMSELF

Ian Constantinides founded St Blaise in 1982 as a sole trader, and the company was incorporated in 1986. St Blaise quickly established a reputation for innovation, imagination and excellence in all aspects of pure conservation and historic building repair and for its determination to build teams of long term, directly employed craftsmen in the traditional trades. Possibly its greatest contribution to conservation in the UK has been the demystification of rarified conservation techniques, using them on a vast scale to treat whole buildings, and establishing them as the routine stock of trade work today Bristol Temple Meads Highcliffe Castle

Following an exceptionally successful sub-contract on the fire ravaged mansion of Prior Park, the main-contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine, invested in the firm. The comfort of this backing allowed St Blaise to tender for the largest conservation projects in its own right, and it was alone among the new generation of conservation firms capable of so doing

Landmark contracts included Lloyds Bank, Cirencester (stonemasonry, carving, cleaning and conservation) Uppark House (fine joinery, conservation joinery & woodcarving & fine conservation) Prior Park (plain and decorative plasterwork, leadwork & joinery) Windsor Castle (joinery, decorative plasterwork, fine conservation & general building) the British Museum (stonemasonry, carving, conservation & cleaning & joinery) and the rebuilding of the IRA bomb damaged St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate (All trades)

In 2004 Stonewest Ltd, an established and well respected London stonecleaning and masonry repair contractor, acquired a controlling interest. This heralds a new and most exciting future for both companies who are set to become the driving force in Historic Building Repair and Conservation today Natural Stone Magazine Article

ST BLAISE LTD ~ TODAY

The company structure is conventional:

The two executive directors, Ian Constantinides and Gary Jones are responsible for the Marketing and Technical, and the Operations Functions respectively

The firm shares its Financial, Personnel, and parts of its Administrative Functions with Stonewest Ltd thus reducing the group’s overhead and enhancing its competitive edge

Contracts Managers run up to 15-25 jobs concurrently, between them, depending on their size and complexity. All come from trade backgrounds, have proved their excellence in their respective trades and have many years of experience with the company They are truly competent, very experienced and well versed in the best of conservation and its application in practice

Contract Surveyors manage the valuations, cost reconciliations and the final accounts, working with information provided by the Contract Managers who are consequently acutely financially aware. Testimonial after testimonial refer to the usefulness of St Blaise’s cost consciousness in helping to budget and plan for unforeseen items. The awards we have received reflect both the quality and the management of our work

The contract managers are ably supported by their trade foremen, and St Blaise’s reputation for excellence in the traditional trades is a tribute to their dedication, passion and understanding

The tradesmen, craftsmen and conservators come from all walks of life and parts of the country and consequently St Blaise is truly national. A distant job is run by sending a manager supported by key people in the core trades and recruiting locally. Many of the those locally recruited stay with the firm and move on to other jobs Staff & Recruitment

The company has a well equipped, museum standards conservation workshop, a fully equipped joinery shop, and a stonemasonry banker shop, all on its premises in Dorset, which it shares with Rose of Jericho a leading analyst and manufacturer of Historic Mortars, Plasters and Renders, and Traditional Paints

ST BLAISE ~ HIMSELF

He is the Patron Saint of Wild Animals, Sore Throats, Wool Carders, Wax Chandlers, Beer Festivals, “Ooompah Bands”, Dubrovnik, Stonemasons and, possibly, even Plasterers…

Legend and history have it that St Blaise was born to a wealthy family in Armenia and practised as a physician before becoming Bishop of Sebastea. During the persecutions of Licinius in AD 316, he was captured by hunters scouring for wild animals to feed the amphitheatres of Rome in the wilderness he had taken refuge in. They were amazed to see him preaching serenely to the most attentive of savage beasts but nevertheless carried him off to Agricolaeus, the governor of Cappadocia. Whilst in prison he miraculously cured a boy choking to death on a fish bone. He was subsequently brutally tortured, flayed alive with carding combs and beheaded

Coins from the C7th bearing his image on one side and the stonemason’s square and compass on the other were found in the river below the town bridge of Pau in SW France. In medieval Paris the Plasterers’ trade guild would invoke St Blaise to intercede in disputes over short measure (…how little since things were made, have things changed in the building trade…)

Dubrovnik adopted him as its patron saint and given how little damage the city suffered during the recent war, undoubtedly he is effective. His right arm, lying in a bejewelled reliquary behind the altar is still used as the standard measure of the builder’s cubit… but, as at least 5 churches claim to possess this one relic, one can understand why nothing ever quite stacks up in the Balkans…

He is not well known in this country other than for his sterling work with sore throats. His more builderly skills are only now being recognised thro’ the efforts of those who have adopted him as their patron and invoke him for guidance in their work…

St Blaise is a good saint…