05 October 2022
Here’s Stone Mason, Daniel Cooper. With 34 years of experience in this traditional craftmanship, he is undertaking the painstaking work to restore the stonework at the Hull Maritime Museum.
Hull Maritime Museum is made is 80 per cent of Ancaster Limestone.
There are 80 individual pieces of Ancaster Limestone to meticulously measure, carve and put into place around the exterior of the building.
The architect’s drawings identify the areas which are in need of attention.
The pieces are measured and templates for each induvial piece of stone are made. It takes weeks to undertake this element of the work. Each template is individually labelled to identify the shape, location and size.
A black line is drawn on to the stone and then the Stone Mason will then get to work carving the piece of stone. It is done in a temporary onsite Bankershop. The Bankershop is the name of a Stonemason’s workshop, the Banker is the heavy duty work table for the stone mason to work on the stone.
Specialist protective equipment is needed. The cutting then gets underway and it’s an extremely noisy process.
Before this, Daniel needs to cut out the piece of damaged stone.
Once the area is ready, the new piece of stone is ready to be put into place.
80 pieces of stone will be cut, carved and installed. This includes 20 pieces of cornice, weighing 250kg and 60 indents, making sure the historic building looks as beautiful as ever.
It is thought this is the first time a Stone Mason has worked on the building since it was built in 1871.
