Own Your Own Piece of Heritage Craft
Welcome to Worcester Cathedral’s first ever sealed-bid carved stone auction. We are delighted to offer you the opportunity to bid for your own piece of heritage craft, created by our talented apprentice stone masons.
Our Maston Mason, Darren Steele, has carefully chosen a selection of carved stones to form ten auction lots. They reflect the great talent and skill of our apprentices, both past and present.
Until Thursday 28 November you can view the auction lots on display in the Dean’s Chapel, during normal Cathedral opening hours.
If you would like to own your own carved stone, please let us have your sealed bid by 20:00 Sunday 1 December 2024 when the auction will close.
One of these can be yours
To place a sealed bid before the closing date of Sunday 1st December 2024 please complete the form below.
Alternatively, download a Sealed Bid Form and return it to Freepost Worcester Cathedral (no stamp required).
Download a copy of the Auction Catalogue here or email cathysloan@worcestercathedral.org.uk for a copy.
Sealed-bid Auction Form
Our Stone Masons and Apprentices
We are proud to employ our own stone masons, something we have done now for over 30 years. We are one of only a handful of English Cathedrals to operate in this way. This means that we not only manage a unique environment in which our masons work but we can offer specialised training in traditional heritage skills that produce masons of a high calibre and great ability.
Over the years we have welcomed many apprentices into our stone mason team. They learn under the tutelage of the Cathedral’s Master Mason and usually couple this with learning in an academic setting.
The pieces you see here were all crafted by Worcester Cathedral Apprentices and early years Mason Improvers. They would expect to reach this level at least by the end of their third or fourth year in training.
“It is vitally important that we have stone masons with the skills to restore, conserve and respect the stonework, and it is key that we retain all the characteristics and architectural styles so future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty of the Cathedral and explore its history.
To ensure we can do this, we have had a stonemasonry apprenticeship programme for the last 35 years and we have trained many new masons. They have learned their trade here; some have stayed and worked on the Cathedral, and some have moved on to use their skills across the country, and even globally, in the heritage sector.” Darren Steele – Worcester Cathedral Master Mason
