Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
moulded key. The arch is to have a 15 in [inch] rise, but to spring
from a level bed similar to a semi, and the soffit and reveals are to
have a 2¼ in [inch] moulding.
To support lecturers and apprentices there were several topics on brickwork
featuring small sections, or chapters, on 'gauge work', as it was often being
referred to through to the 1880s, such as Hammond (1875 and 1889) and
Walker (1885). Many were written by lecturers intending them to also be also
of assistance to site bricklayers.
In the shires, traditional craft apprenticeships continued to be highly prized
and viewed as the best possible avenue to learning, though there were no
colleges to support this. H.W. Masons, General Builders, Undertakers and
Monumental Masons, of Newport Pagnell (Buckinghamshire) have retained their
Silver Street premises since 1764. The master bricklayer, Henry William Mason
(1873-1952), grandfather of the present owner and craftsman bricklayer
Mr Roy Mason, followed a long-established custom of being apprenticed at
14-years old to a master at another family company. In this instance, it was the
highly respected firm Marriott's of Rushden (Northamptonshire), who worked
not only locally but also in the capital. At Marriott's, he was introduced to the
cutting-shed and gauged work. Upon qualifying as a journeyman in 1893, he was
put to work in London to gain additional knowledge and experience of high-
level craft skills such as gauged work. This enhanced the quality of building work
that Henry Masons and Sons could then offer their clients once he eventually
returned to the family business. Amongst the city craftsmen he was recognised
as a very knowledgeable and talented bricklayer and on 21st October 1893,
he was admitted to the Operative Bricklayers Society's (OBS) Harrow Road
branch. His membership certificate, number 21382, survives today in the own-
ership of his grandson (H Mason, 2003).
Changes in the Cutting-Shed
Early Victorian cutting-sheds were still erected on site, but as these became
more congested, particularly in the city, they were increasingly kept in the
builders' own yards. The finished cutter's work would be dry-assembled in
numbered order and carefully packed into protected casing for delivery for
on-site assembly. When the fashion for enriched gauged work returned in
the second half of the nineteenth century many craftsmen remained solely
in the workshop to cope with this demand, so becoming experts at produc-
ing all forms of enrichments. In the small towns and rural areas, however, the
bricklayer would continue to set his own cut work. The tools and techniques of
the cutter (the term 'hewer' by then being rarely used) were still those of the
Georgian period.
