Stonemasonry at the Building

Crafts College

This year has seen a number of exciting projects in development at the Building Crafts College.

Students have been involved in designing and building a 4m flying buttress in the classroom. The buttress features hand carved crockets, blind tracery and flintwork inset panels.

We offer 8 different masonry based NVQ courses, in disciplines covering Banker, Fixer, Heritage, Memorial and Level 6 Construction Site Management in Conservation.

Students are also invited to work on outside contracts at the college during their holiday time. This year the college received commissions to work on a number of prestigious public projects. This can be used to count towards their NVQ coursework (if applicable).

The college hosts an annual study trip to Florence, which includes visits to Carrara mines and the Duomo masons’ workshop.

This year, students on our masonry courses won recognition in a number of prestigious national awards.

Work has already begun on an ambitious new project for 2012. A classical Bath stone and slate clock tower is being built on to the office above the stone shop. Students will carve the clock faces by hand as part of their lettering training.

For further information, or to arrange a visit, please contact the stone department team (Nigel Gilkison, Jon Whitbread or Lucy Haugh) on 0208 522 1705 or by email: nigel.gilkison@thebcc.ac.uk