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[Steve manual interview] The apprentice stonemason Interview

Date: 24/04/2014

Location: Drawing board office

Length: [00:19:28]Interviewee: Steve manual

Interviewer: Andrei Allen

Transcriber: Andrei Allen

Note: []

Time Transcribed

[00:00:51] Q. What were your favorite activities at school?

A. At school i used to like technical drawing art, football, cricket, most

sports

[00:01:28]

[00:01:58]

Q. What made you decide to become a stonemason?

A. erm... probably what sewed the seed there is, when i was a child i use

to walk through the cloister, and there was a short cut to the town centre,and i saw some stones that being hoisted up on a winch, and i thought

that was pretty impressive, and i think it was a quatrefoil as well, so you

could see the detail that they put on the stonework, so that, that quiet

interested me

[00:02:25]

[00:02:42]

Q. What is your families working background?

A.ermmm.... my farther use to be in engineering, erm, my mother wasjust a, bringing up the children like you did in the early days

[00:02:46]

[00:02:52]

Q. And how did your parent feel with your decision to study

stonemasonry?

A. Yea they were quiet pleased for me to go into stonemasonry, they

thought it was a good trade

[00:02:56][00:03:03]

Q. What is your job title?

A. erm, my job title is senior mason training

[00:03:10]

[00:03:25]

Q. What does your job entail?

A. my job now is too work stone, and also train the apprentices, givethem local general knowledge of basic masonry skills

[00:03:31]

[00:03:44]

Q. How long wasyou a stonemason for before you were made into a

master apprentice?

A. erm. i probably done at least 30 years in stonemasonry before they

asked me to consider training the apprentices

[00:03:48]

[00:04:25]

Q. What was your decision to become an apprentice master?

A.erm. i think that was probably due to the fact they didnt have anyone

senior at the time to train masons, so they did ask me just to go, and have

a go at training masons to see how i got on.

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[00:04:28]

[00:05:01]

Q. What was your decision to become an apprentice master?

A. it wasn't really my decision, i think, errm it was the dean and chapter,

erm, suggested maybe i would consider training apprentices as i have 30

years experience, and i think its quiet traditional that if you become

senior that you help out with the training

[00:05:48][00:06:06]

Q. How long have you be working at this workshop for?A. erm, theres always been a workshop at the cathedral, so erm,

obviously i started in the 70s, so i came to this workshop here in the

1970s and as i sad theres always been a workshop here

[00:06:12][00:06:35]

Q. have you seen this workshop go through many changes?

A. yes indeed theres many changes, its ben enlarged, its been reduced,

extended, yea generally speaking its changes a lot, like everywhere in the

chapter, its changed.

[00:06:55]

[00:07:06]

Q. How many apprentices have you graduate since you've been an

apprentice master?

A.i possibly have trained 8 apprentices since ive been here

[00:07:06]

[00:07:19]

Q. How do you feel knowing that the apprentices that you've trained

have been trained by yourself and have gotten good quality skills

A. erm, yea thats nice to know that they can come out with qualification

that they can use later on in their career, yea its quiet humbling to know

that theyve done very well

[00:07:44]

[00:08:07]

Q. What were the challenges you faces with taking on new

apprentices

A. I think, All apprentices have got their own, erm, skills levels, erm,

some take a bit longer, to understand, how to get to grips with the tools,others pick it up kind of quickly, yea, it all depends on the individual

really,

[00:08:25]

[00:08:44]

Q. What are the challenges you face with the continual work of

keeping the cathedral alive?

A. Erm, let me see, erm, well as long as I can, as I can trai the apprentices

to a reasonable level, then I think the cathedra will keep standing as theywill

[00:08:55]

[00:09:12]

[00:09:32]

[00:10:22]

[00:10:42]

Q. What is your motivation for doing this work?

A. My motivation, erm,

A. yea, Its knowing that its all good fun, and yea, if you can getpleasure out of doing some, coming to work, obviously thats part of the

job.

A. Erm, well obviously to pass on the knowledge that the apprentice are

going to do well, theyve all get there qualifications, and erm, its all

good fun, at the end of the day, if you can come to work and enjoy

yourself and enjoy the work that you can do, its, its all good.

[00:10:42]

[00:11:10]

Q. What are you currently working on?

A.At the moment, were erm, most of us are working on the south

window, so theres a lot of ah, a lot of work there to do with the window,

erm, and obviously my time is spent in training the apprentices as well,and theyve also started to work some of the simple molding, and someof the mullions

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[00:11:18]

[00:11:30]

Q. How many apprentices are you managing?

A. At the moment theres erm, theres just the two, erm, Lewis and Jake

are doing their CDW, and Im continuing training Mirella and Scott,

[00:11:38][00:11:18]

Q. How much work is there to be done at the cathedral?A. Erm, thats a difficult one, because, hopefully theres always work,

theres always something going on, but erm, fingers crossed, yea that will

be continuing years after, I mean at least the next five years theres work

in place, so once we finish the window theres will be something else to

continue restoring.

[00:11:18]

[00:13:08]

Q. What are the challenges you face with the continual work of

keeping the cathedral alive?

A. Ah, challenges, erm, the cathedral is a big building, and erm, erm,A. Yea, well, there all challenges within there own right,

[00:13:33]

[00:13:59]

Q. What sort of tasks do you have to do here at the cathedral?

A. Well my main task is too train the apprentices, but also I get involved

in conservation, and the general running of the masonry works, and a lot

of banker work fixing, carving, all aspects, I mean if im needed to go and

fix, or carve stone, I can put that into place.

[00:14:04]

[00:14:29]

Q. What do you enjoy

A. erm, well basically the enjoyment is, erm, training apprentices, erm

and also the masonry erm, I mean once youve carved a stone, you see it

fixed, or you fix it yourself, and you know that that stone is going to befor the next possibly , 3-500 hundred years, and that is quiet satisfying.

[00:14:30][00:14:59]

Q. How do you feel doing work thats contributing towards the

cathedral,

A. erm, well of course, the cathedral is an important building and to keep

that structure alive, is I think is quiet beneficial, obviously its very

important, so yea thats another good. Cut.

[00:15:07]

[00:15:25]

Q. How do you get on with everyone whom you work with at the

cathedral?

A. erm, I think we all, especially the mason, we all get on, we all seem to

know it each other very well, and er, we hardly have any little issues or

problems, its like a big family really (sarcastic higher pitched voice)

[00:15:33][00:16:08]

Q. Do you get into any social activities outside work

A. We have done know and then, sometimes we might have special

events, go out for a drink, or there might be a little 5 a side football

match, or a darts competitions,erm, yea now and then we do, but I think

a lot of people think, if your at work together, you dont always want to

go back out with them in the evening,

[00:16:12]

[00:16:36]

Q. What do you guys get up to for lunch?

A. Lunch time, erm, I think everyone does there own thing really, we do

usually play cards, erm, we just go for a walk in town, we dont get long

we only get half an hour, so erm, yea, usually card if we can, if theresenough of us.

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[00:16:44]

[00:17:009]

Q. What card games do you play?

A. aww, erm, I think they call one of the games, nomination whist, or,

rummy, I think the other ones called rummy, but we probably stick to

those two, thosetwo games.

A. we normally play nomination whist, and we normally play rummy.

[00:17:18][00:17:44]

Q. What is nomination whist?A. Nomination whist, is. Erm where you have to nominative how

many tricks your going to get, and if you get that right, you get points for

that, so its generally speaking, a points system, so at the end of the game

you total up your score, and , highest score wins.

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[00:18:40]

[00:18:47]

Q. How long have these card games been played at the cathedral for?

A. erm. Probably erm, possibly over 20 years that I know of, yea 20

years, maybeA. The card games, probably have been going for, say 15-20 years.