Stonemason

Good day, good day – you like to watch me work? Oh! Please go further back, these bits of stone jump a long way from the hammer! No, no I'm not from here – I'm from Normandy – a long way from here... but in this castle they still speak Norman French, so it feels a bit like home.

How did I get here? Well, it was like this – in Normandy I was building castles for King Richard – yes, your 'Lionheart' – our 'Coeur de Lion'. The Master Mason was very happy with my work, and sent me to work on the royal palaces over here, and then your Earl William the Marshal hired me for this new round keep we are building. We masons are always on the move from job to job ... although a job can take years.

How long? Oh, long time. I finished my training as apprentice mason when I was eighteen, and now I'm nearly forty five. Seven years training, then a lifetime of hard work. I need an apprentice to train, maybe two, teach them how to do fancy carving. Oh yes! Even in a castle. You see that double window at the top of the keep – that is my work,– something special for the highest window. But with all these skills, I'm still a commoner to these castle folk, so I cannot eat in the Hall – I'm a craftsman, not a high-born, you see.

Well, a great castle always needs stonework. If the Lord isn't extending his hall, the steward needs a bigger storeroom or the constable wants the walls repaired. There’s always work for a good mason... even an old one.