TECHNIQUE

Research questions

In the absence of codified institutional standards, how do we discover the qualitative principles which underpinned stonework in the period? How much agency was afforded to masons and carvers in building production and how were standards maintained? How can we discover more about the training and methods of architectural carvers and of the large-scale workshops needed for projects of scale? How can understanding of these methods and techniques inform contemporary conservation practice?

Using both manuscript sources and digital surveying techniques (for samples, see below), STONE-WORK is looking for answers to the above questions by recording the different methods and techniques used by stone workers across Britain and Ireland.