Introduction

Hello there,

This is my first blog and I wanted to introduce myself to you.

My name is Chris Swales and I own Swales in the Dales, we are stonemasons from Skipton North Yorkshire (the gateway to the Dales) which is where we came up with our name.

I am married to Becky who helps me with paper work, advertising and design work. We have two children Ruby who's nearly 6 and James who's 3. Both of them enjoy having a go at carving but mainly like messing up the workshop. Our workshop is situated on Station Rd, Crosshills and we've been there since September 2014.

I suffer badly with Fibromyalgia which is chronic widespread pain, but i'm not letting it beat me and definitely not letting it stop me from carving.

We are trying to get into the monumental side of carving with producing hand carved headstones and cremation tablet's. We feel that hand carving is a more personal touch rather than putting a persons name into a computer and getting a machine to carve it within minutes.

Above is a cremation tablet that we have just carved into Yorkshire stone. We like to keep with traditional workmanship using traditional tools.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog as much as i have writing it. If you have any questions or just want any advice please drop us a message.

Thank you for your time

Chris Swales