Stone masonry around Bath

Blue Coat School Chimney 1987

Camden Road Cornice 1985

Dorset St. Canopy 1986

Maud Heath Memorial Sundial 1975

Obelisk Queen Square 1974

One of my first pieces of stone masonry went into the base of the obelisk In Queen Square. I had just been indentured with the Bath and Portland stone Firms. These stones are still clearly visible as new additions. Later I was to work on the obelisk again in my own right. These stones are simple ashlars  and quoins but I still feel the same sense of achievement when I see them that I felt having accomplished my first task as a young stone mason.  Later on as my ability increased I was given the Maud Heath sundial to make and so on. Although not as much complex masonry was coming through the workshop as in past decades the masons would let apprentices gain experience from what there was often giving up their own chance of having a nice job for a few days. Often the collective experience of the workshop was employed on rebating  ashlars for months on end now done by machines. I was lucky to catch the final years of the old masonry trade that had been slowly dieing since the outbreak of war in 1939.