Purbeck Shop: A Stoneworker's Story of Stone

First published in 1940, this book is the record of a man who was born into an ancient family of stoneworkers and followed the traditional quarrying and stone-cutting in the last flourishing days of an industry since in decline. It is a first-hand account of a craft whose skill depended upon courage, traditional knowledge, strength of sinew, and a sense of the material worked in. It gives a picture of a society self-contained and of a medieval craft organisation. It is told with pride and without regret, and it shows as much knowledge of rugged humanity as of solid stone.