Medieval Mythbusting: Stonemasons & Sculptures

The sixth in the Triskele Heritage 2021-22 Winter Series of lectures.

Following on from the popular Lockdown Lectures which, ran from January to May 2021, this new series of monthly lectures by buildings archaeologist James Wright will examine commonly held myths about the mediaeval period.

Evidence for the craft of mediaeval stonemasons can be seen all around us in the chapels, churches, cathedrals, monasteries, houses and castles built by them. The practical engineering involved in the creation of such great buildings is absolutely jawdropping. There is a great appreciation for the end product, but seldom is there a discussion on the methods of construction.

When the subject of the working practises of stonemasons is considered it is common to find the received wisdom of folklore entering the conversation. For example, it is widely believed that there was a central register of individual symbols that masons were assigned which they used to mark up all of their stones so that they could be paid per piece. Elsewhere, stories are told that the many sexualised carvings, that can be found in ecclesiastical architecture, must be the result of anti-establishment stonemasons creating a visual joke on their patrons because they went unpaid for a job.

The lived mediaeval reality behind both mason’s marks and sexualised carvings are radically different from the commonly repeated stories. This talk will try to unpick the fact from the fiction.

The speaker, James Wright (Triskele Heritage), is an award winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period. He is the author of the popular Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog.

Event organiser is Triskele Heritage.