King Richard III was laid to rest in a tomb crowned with a single piece of Swaledale Fossil Brown from a quarry in North Yorkshire; a quarry which he would have once owned as the Duke of York, 530 years ago.
Carved by James Elliott, a renowned stone mason, from a single 6 tonne stone from a Britannicus Stone quarry, near Melsonby, the tomb stone measures 2 metres x 1 metre x 600 centimetres and still weighs a staggering 2.3 tonne. The Swaledale Fossil has undergone a prolonged polishing process using industrial diamonds which buff the stone to a shine to highlight the nature and composite of this magnificent stone.
