At 11:38 PM 2/1/2010, jody allen wrote: >Can anyone share with me what a stone mason's day might be like in the early >1800's in Galloway? My 3xgrandfather was a stone mason and I would like to >know what he did. Were there any large construction going on in the >1820-1840's in Kirkcudbright, Drumfries or Wigtown that would need a lot of >stone masons? I am hoping to find some records of the work he did but need >to know other than doing headstones what a stone mason might have done. > Also interested what a joiner would do? Were they basically independent and >were hired for jobs or did they work for a "union" and were called to work >on jobs. I am just looking for sources of information in other sources >rather than the Vital Statistics and kirk session records. > >Jody > >-- >Jody Allen, >Scottish Scribbles Blog >http://scottishscribbles.blogspot.com >~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jody, My g-great grandfather, John David Dobie, was also a stonemason (actually a stonecutter) from Dumfries. Evidently there were quarries near Dumfries so presumably he worked in them. When they started construction of the docks in Liverpool in the 1840's he moved his family there to work on their construction. Evidently those stone docks are still being used today. So there would have been a tremendous need for stonemasons as well as stone. I'm sure there must be a Liverpool museum which has more info. I think the idea of a "union" at that time is not realistic. Any attempts to start unions were met with brutality from the police or military. Check out this website which I found through Google: <http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/albertdock/historyofthealbertdock.asp>. There are pages of relevant links if you google "liverpool docks construction", without the quotes. Cheers, Chas. Dobie.