The ancient art of the mason lives on all around us

 I’M not a great believer in the adage: ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. I feel familiarity simply engenders unquestioning acceptance. A case in point is the abundance of architectural or built heritage we are surrounded by, the everyday beauty that we have inherited from our forefathers and, in this instance, from the skilled masons who created these masterpieces.

This legacy was brought into focus as I read through: The Stonemason – A History of building Britain by Andrew Ziminski, which is a fascinating tour of stone masonry from Stonehenge on into the Roman period, the great medieval castle- and cathedral-building boom and on to modern restoration projects.