Kensington Palace in London, home of Prince William, commissioned Chilstone to replicate the 16th century Pulhamite planters that had gradually deteriorated over time. Kensington Palace in London, home of Prince William, commissioned Chilstone to replicate the originial 16th century Pulhamite planters that had gradually deteriorated over time. Pulhamite was a renowned composite stone and a forerunner of Chilstone’s cast stone. The palace asked us to replicate these, but to recreate them as twenty two smaller stone planters as part of a major refurbishment of Kensington Palace and gardens.

Chilstone used the original planters to reproduce the detail on the new planters. We took impressions from the original to make a bespoke mould, that we scaled down to the desired size. We used our cast stone mix to create  replica planters, that were hand finished by our master crafts men to retain the detailed features. Our Tunbridge Wells workshop has a skilled workforce that equates to over 125 years of experience.

We were proud to be asked to work on this outstanding garden dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana and to craft these key pieces for the garden of the current residence of Prince William and his family. We were delighted when Prince Harry made our Kensington Stone Planters world famous when he announced his engagement to Meghan Markle to the world’s press in the garden, standing between our Kensington Planters.

With 65 years in business, Chilstone have created bespoke products to replicate damaged stonework for many clients, including Hever Castle, Kew Gardens, Embely Park and Tunbridge Well’s famous Chalybeate urns in the Pantiles. Our cast stone looks like quarried stone. Its composition encourages moss and lichens and increases in value as it weathers.