Who we are

The Colin Braid Stone Workshop is run by me - Leigh Bradley - working alongside a small number of craftspeople, designers and manufacturers who I have had the pleasure of collaborating with over my last 15 years at the workshop.

I took over the running of my Uncle Colin's monumental masonry workshop after his death in 2011. It was a particularly sad and bewildering time for me but I eventually came to realise that it had offered me a hard yet helpful insight into what it is to experience the death of someone very close to you and everything that families and friends encounter in the aftermath. It's a lot.

Consequently, it is my aim to make the commissioning of a headstone as easy as possible by offering a range of simple granite and sandstone headstones that can be designed in the best way possible to reflect the individuality of the person that is being memorialised - the workshop puts a lot of time and effort into this aspect of our work because we understand how much it matters. After some initial consultation to decide on a fitting design, and the completion of some simple paperwork, the Colin Braid Stone Workshop will take care of every other part of the memorial headstone process.

My background is in fine art and design, which I studied at Central Saint Martins and Manchester School of Art. I later went on to serve a stonemasonry apprenticeship at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh. I learned to draw and carve letters with my Uncle Colin, and trained in the conservation of historic masonry with Historic Environment Scotland. Aside from making many memorial headstones I have worked on public arts projects throughout the UK, have regularly carved the annual Edinburgh Award flagstones and worked as part of the Archaeological Museum team restoring Stavanger Cathedral in Norway.