[Scott Wiseman interview] The apprentice stonemason Interview

Bate: 24u42u14
Location: Biawing boaiu office
Length: |uu:24:12j
Inteiviewee: Scott Wiseman
Inteiviewei: Anuiei Allen
Tiansciibei: Anuiei Allen
Note: |j



Time Transcribed
[00:02:28]

[00:02:50]
Q. What did you do once you finished school?
A. Once i finished school there was an event held at excel in London,
and it had all the career choices which you could take, and i choose to
have a look around and masonry was what i really wanted to do so..
[00:03:19]
[00:03:32]
Q. What made you decide to become a stonemason?
A. From when i tried the excel, when i was allowed to have a go, it felt
really comfortable to do it, and i thoroughly enjoyed it.
[00:04:06]

[00:04:22]
Q. Do you have any relatives who are craftsmen/women?
A. I have my granddad, who's worked on the royal palaces, and my uncle
who's a lecturer at the building crafts college in London.
[00:04:29]


[00:04:36]
Q. How long have you been a stonemason apprentice for?
A. Ive been a stonemason apprentice since the 20th of august 2013
Q. Ok so you've been a stonemason apprentice for two years?
A. Yea coming up for two years this august yep.
[00:04:58]
[00:05:26]
Q. What sort of tasks do you have to do?
A. There's a wide range, and we start of with a square block, and we
work up from square block, to chamfer of a alone cavetto, and then we
go onto more, more interesting mouldings, and we get to, we take them
on, then we do a round piece, and sunken pieces, and thats where they
build us, they build us up, so it's our training towards where we're gonna
go next.
[00:05:30]


[00:05:50]
[00:06:03]
Q. Why do you have to do these tasks?
A. Its em, part of the learning, part of our training to do these tasks
We do these tasks, as part of our training, and part of our training, so we
take it from square block and build it up to more decretive moulds


[00:06:22]



[00:06:40]
Q. how much work is there to be done at the cathedral?
A. There's a fair amount of work to be done on the cathedral, it's a never
ending task, your always, comes around to a point where your always
either conserving something or replacing stone.
A. So you've always got to be.... yea
[00:06:44]



[00:07:05]
Q. What do you enjoy about doing this work?
A. i enjoy the aspect of, your going from a prime material, taking it from
a square block, and your turning it into something that's gonna....
a real nice piece of craftsmanship, which is going to go into the building
and be there for, hundreds maybe thousands of years to come.
[00:07:55]
[00:08:08]
Q. What is your favorite aspect of what you've learnt so far?
A. I don't really have a favourite aspect because it's all really sort of more
rounded and everything is my favourite aspect i really enjoy doing it all.
[00:08:15]
[00:08:37]
Q. What sort of stuff have you learnt so far in the two years being on
the course?
A. Ive learnt to, well, Ive learnt from not being able to do anything, too
being able to do quiet intricate mouldings, and turning a square block
into something more beautiful than just being a square block
[00:08:40]
[00:08:46]
Q. What are you currently working on?
A. Im currently working on a minor mullion for the great south window
project
[00:08:54]


[00:09:36]
Q. Can you give me a brief example breaking it down into stages of
how you would go about constructing this minor mullion
A. You would take it from sections, so you would look at it as, instead of
being one stone, well, you would look at is as being quarter sections, so
you would work one quarter sections, you would saw the waist into
checks, you would cut checks taking and removing all of the waste from
the checks, and once you've done that you would flatten the surfaces off,
and then you would take it down, so you would work, your first, so you
might work the cavetto first, or we might work one of the other pieces of
moulding.
[00:09:42]

[00:09:53]
Q. How long have you been working on this stone mullion for?
A. I think it's about 18 days now Ive been working on it
I've been working on the minor mullion now for 18 days


[00:10:25]
[00:10:45]
Q. how do you feel that you've improved on this apprenticeship in
comparison to when you first started?
A. Since i first started, i've, i reckon i've come a lot, well i've come a
very long way, from not being able to really do a flat surface when i
started here. and now I'm doing, stones which are far much bigger, so the
minor mullion stones now which are, yea.
[00:11:07]
[00:11:48]
Q. What motivates you to continue working as a stonemason?
A. What motivates me, is the fact that, again, your going from having a
prime piece of material, and your seeing it progress through the stages to
becoming either a minor mullion, or a decorative panel, or any one of the
things that it can be, it could be a little carving, and it's just seeing it
progress through stages, and thats what motivates me.
[00:12:45]
[00:13:16]
Q. What is your ideal dream once you've finished the stonemason
apprenticeship?
A. Once Ive finished my 5 year stonemasonry apprenticeship, i would
like to progress, i would like to if theres enough, if i can, i would like to
stay on at the cathedral, but if not i would look at going on and doing
extra courses, and going further a field and learning more about the
industry about working Yea
[00:14:36]









[00:16:19]
Q. How do you feel about doing work that's contributing towards the
cathedral?
A. its overwhelming really, because you know the fact that you've done
something that's going into a historic building, that all around the world,
people know about, and it's going to be here for hundreds, of hundreds of
years, even thousands of years, possibly, and you know that you've
applied skills that you've learnt from the cathedral and your putting it
back in.

A. It's overwhelming knowing the fact that you know what your doing is
going to be in the cathedral for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, so
where you've learnt your skill from, and now your applying it and your
putting it back into the cathedral
[00:16:51]
[00:17:08]
Q. How do you get on with everybody whom you work with?
A. Everyone in the masonry department, it's more like a family sort of
place, because theyre always there to either give you guidance, help
you, and theyre always there to be supportive as well.
[00:17:15]

[00:17:31]
Q. What do you guys get up to for lunch?
A. At lunchtime we either play rummy or declaration.
A. There both card games that we play, just to pass the time


[00:19:58]
[00:20:11]
Q. Do you guys get up to much outside of work?
A. At these events, it's, it's like a family environment, it's all... everyones
together, and everyones sort of as one pretty much.
[00:20:51]



[00:21:09]
Q. What do you prefer working here instead of at college?
A. It's both the same really, so working here and then working at college,
is pretty much a similar environment, its just more people in different
crafts at the college, but here, it's sort of like
A. its... like, this is more the family based sort of thing at the cathedral,
everyones together, where as at college everyones sort of splits, moves
around, that sort of thing.
[00:22:54]
[00:23:49]
Q. What do you prefer working here instead of at college?
A. Working at Canterbury compared to working in London, at
Canterbury we get more 1 on 1 training, its a friendlier environment, and
theres always someone here to help you either with fixing, masonry, or
if your unsure about the drawings, or any aspect of the craft at all, you've
always got a member, you've always got, you've got Dunky who's our
setting, setter out and up in the drawing room, you've Steve who's a
mason, you go to him, then you've got tony who does the fixing, so we've
always got someone to go to, where as at college we sort of have to wait
around to be helped, where as here we have 1 on 1 with Steve or an
experienced mason who's in the workshop with us