On the Continent, stonemasonry apprentices traditionally completed their training by touring the countryside, stopping with Master Masons as they found them in various towns to fine tune their craft as they travelled. You still see the apprentices, dressed in old-fashioned ragged clothing, at Continental stone shows.

They do not often cross the Channel, so it came as a surprise when Adelheid Weber, 27, arrived out of the blue at Cheddar-based Wells Cathedral Stonemasons in Somerset.

She turned up at the company\'s workshop in the town\'s former railway station in November carrying her masonry tools and CV, asking for work. And she was given it. Since then she has been producing stonework on a job that Wells Cathedral Stonemasons are undertaking on Shire Hall in Taunton.

Managing director Peter Arkell said: "She fitted in very well indeed. Although a female German mason in the heart of Somerset may seem an unusual combination, we do already have a qualified German stonemason working for us."