Stonehenge link

The bluestone, sourced from the Preseli Hills in west Wales, is proving hugely popular in Japan because many there believe it has healing powers.

Preseli Bluestone’s financial director Barry Sennett said: “The contact has led to a really promising situation which we hope to build on.

“In Japan and the Far East, people are much more into folklore, magic, lucky numbers and lucky charms. They look at the ethical or esoteric powers of stones, rather than the financial value.

“Preseli Bluestone, if not already the fastest selling product of its kind in Japan, is well on its way to it,” he added.

Creative director Colin Shearing added: “In Japan they have a intrinsic belief that trees, rivers, mountains and stones are embodied with spirits. Each stone has a different essence and legend says bluestone holds the spirit of Merlin, who is well known there.

“In the UK, you might spot a few New Agers wearing these stones but in the Far East they are a mass-market product. Even business executives wear them for luck.

“To the Japanese, Stonehenge is something very special. They value it much more than we do. There are 1,000 shops in Tokyo that specialise in offering products such as crystals, stones and beads, most of which are bracelets. We have nothing like them in this country.”

Advertisements for the products on Japanese television, radio and shopping channels sparked an inquiry from a company seeking the rights to market the range in Korea, another potentially huge market.

When he was approached by the Japanese distributor, Mr Shearing contacted Government body UK Trade & Investment to ask for advice on exporting.

UKTI set up a translator and conference call from the British embassy in Tokyo and later helped arrange a fact-finding trip to the city for Mr Shearing, from which he returned with the three-year contract.

He said: “After we had delivered the first order, which was for thousands and more than we would normally sell in the UK in a year, the distributor contacted me again and said the product was going very, very well indeed.

“In fact, they had sold out and could I get some more to them quickly?

“Then we heard that the top five wholesalers in Japan were prepared to take the product.

“It is very difficult to talk numbers or turnover because we have only been doing this for six months and the market is opening up all the time.

“If they expand into the Far East then they will want more and more. This has completely changed the dynamics of our company.”

The company also plans to expand into the north American and Indian markets in the future.

Mr Shearing snapped up exclusive rights to the bluestone quarry in the Preseli Hills in north Pembrokeshire ten years ago, after hearing the last working one was due to be closed.

The stones are sold through the company’s website and at a shop in the Stonehenge visitor centre. Welsh-based jewellery business Rhiannon designs a range of upmarket jewellery using the bluestones, but the mass-market pieces for the Japanese outlets are produced in Germany.

According to archaeologists, the healing legend of bluestone can be traced back to the Stone Age and probably started because the Preseli rock was surrounded by spring water regarded as having magical properties.

Welsh folklore names the area as the gateway to the underworld and particularly significant to Merlin and the Druids.

Scientific testing proved the bluestone at Preseli is the same as the standing stones of the inner circle of Stonehenge, constructed 5,000 years ago. But experts are divided over whether Stonehenge was used as a centre for healing or cremation, and if the stones were dragged from west Wales to Wiltshire by our ancestors, or shifted there naturally by glaciers.

Mr Shearing said: “It is a very subjective thing. Some people hold on to a bluestone and feel absolutely nothing while it knocks others for six.

“No one knows exactly why, but it is something to do with the vibrations of the stone matching or mismatching the vibrations of the person’s body. This is a real heritage product. There is nothing like it in the world. We are the only ones who are able to supply this stone in quantities like this.

“But we have to be careful when describing it as a piece of Stonehenge. We do get Americans calling us to ask: ‘How do you guys get permission to go into Stonehenge and chip pieces off the stones?’”

Name: Preseli Bluestone Established: 2000 Founders/directors: Colin Shearing and Barry Sennett Number of staff: Two Annual turnover: Confidential

Contact: 01243 576016 Web: www.stonehengestones.com