1 gen 1690 anni - stone-breaker

Descrizione:

In several bridge contracts there are references to workmen ‘breaking’ stone, a term which seems to have a straightforward meaning. The OED entries for ‘break’ do not link the word with ‘masoncraft’ and it is presumably excluded for the reasons given there in the preliminary note. The examples quoted here suggest that the word may have had a more precise meaning in connection with quarrying than at first appears, and fourteenth-century sources hint at that significance, notably three distinct by-names: 1322 <i>in stipendio vnius Cementarii & vnius hominis lapidos in quarrera frangentis & eosdem in dicto stagno cubantis</i>, Leeds (Th45/88); 1348 <i>John le Stonebrekar,</i> Holmfirth (WCR2/26); 1350 <i>Adam Staynwright</i>, Holmfirth (WCR2/214); 1327-8 <i>Roger le Stonhewer</i>, Stannington (TWH20/12). The inference is that these represent three different phases in the preparation of stone for building purposes; that is ‘breaking’, ‘hewing’ and ‘working’. These were different tasks and they required different skill levels, presumably with different rates of pay, although a mason might have to cross the boundaries. When Thomas Kidd was contracted in <i>c</i>.1690 to build a shippon at Conistone he was <i>to breake all the greet Stone ... & to hew one doore</i> (RW28). </br> The distinctions appear to be borne out by the terms of the Kirkstall Bridge contract of 1619 which referred to <i>the breaking, hewing and workinge of the severall sorts of stones thereto belonginge, after theise severall rates</i> (BAS6/147). A later paragraph records the <i>confesion of the Stonebreaker that he hath received xijli</i>. In 1422 it was agreed that the masons building Catterick Bridge should have free entry to two specified quarries <i>for to brek the stane that schalle go to the said brigge</i>. The occupation of stone-breaker would have been even older, and the wage accounts for Bolton Priory in 1296-7 contain the entry <i>Et cuidam fractori lapidum iijs vjd</i> (YRS154/71). Similarly, payments were made to several stone-breakers in York, for example: 1399 <i>Et in fractura lapidum per Johannem Waryn per xv sept. et iij dies, cap. 18d. per sept</i> (SS35/14). In the Kirkstall Abbey Coucher Book is a reference to a tenant called <i>Walter Stanhewer </i>in an undated memorandum of <i>c</i>.1200 (Th8/76).

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