Dying art of the stonemason captured in rare pictures

They are the custodians of our architectural heritage, and although theirs may be a dying craft, our landscape remains dependent on its surviving practitioners.
A stonemason channelling the cornice on the roof of St Paul's Cathedral prior to fitting a covering of asphalt over the stone to preserve it as well as preventing water from falling onto stonework below, in the City of London, England, 23rd January 1934. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)A stonemason channelling the cornice on the roof of St Paul's Cathedral prior to fitting a covering of asphalt over the stone to preserve it as well as preventing water from falling onto stonework below, in the City of London, England, 23rd January 1934. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A stonemason channelling the cornice on the roof of St Paul's Cathedral prior to fitting a covering of asphalt over the stone to preserve it as well as preventing water from falling onto stonework below, in the City of London, England, 23rd January 1934. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

These seldom-seen pictures from the archive recall a time before health and safety measures, when it was not unusual to see a stonemason clinging to the side of a great public building.

Their work has long held a fascination for photographers, not least in the aftermath of the Blitz, when sections of St Paul’s Cathedral had to be rebuilt, painstakingly, by hand.

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Repair work was also necessary to the Houses of Parliament, and one mason, with a working outfit of fedora hat, waistcoat and tie, was pictured carving pieces of stone salvaged from the bomb damage into commemorative tobacco jars.

A stonemason at work on the south face of Canterbury Cathedral's Bell Harry Tower.    (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)A stonemason at work on the south face of Canterbury Cathedral's Bell Harry Tower.    (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
A stonemason at work on the south face of Canterbury Cathedral's Bell Harry Tower. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

There is no trade that can be said to be older than that of the stonemason. Literally at the dawn of civilization, people learned how to use fire to create quicklime, plasters, and mortars, which they used to fashion homes for themselves with mud, straw, or stone. As ambition grew, the Egyptians built their pyramids and the Greeks their temples.

Today, the skill continues to be passed down through the generations, and enough masons remain for it to have been possible, two years ago, to stage a stone carving festival in the shadow of York Minster.

Some 70 of the world’s foremost masons competed with each other and against the clock in a contest that promised to do for cathedrals what Bake-Off had done for buns.

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The Minster retains its own stone yard, and comparable buildings across Europe are the holy grail for the masons of today. The York festival brought specialists from Canterbury, Durham, Lincoln, Winchester and Norwich cathedrals and from as far afield as Iceland, India and the vast Romanesque Nidaros Cathedral in southern Norway, where the country’s kings are traditionally crowned.

15th October 1931:  A mason at work at the John Pearce Portland Stone Quarries on the Isle of Portland in Dorset.  (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)15th October 1931:  A mason at work at the John Pearce Portland Stone Quarries on the Isle of Portland in Dorset.  (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
15th October 1931: A mason at work at the John Pearce Portland Stone Quarries on the Isle of Portland in Dorset. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

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