The Gloucester Stone Carving Festival

3 June, 2013 – 2:22 pm

What a huge success, it was my first year organising this event on my own, I did 2 others in 08 and 09 in The Forest of Dean but they didn’t compare to this one.

The stone which was generously donated by Veizeys quarry in Tetbury was greatly received by all the masons and even the general public in my have ago sessions enjoyed carving it-as I have said before this is the best stone in the county!

The weather was glorious people sitting on the grass relaxing with their youngsters while the mason got on with their carvings, and what amazing carvings. They all started with a block 8 x 8 x 12 inches and a pre-designed idea to the theme nautical to tie in with the Tall Ships Festival.

The aim of this event was for the benefit and education of the general public and stonemasons alike, I think we ticked all the boxes, I know I did more that 20hrs have ago even though I had only scheduled 4! Who knew they would be so popular and when people were still turning up at 6pm, I couldn’t say no.

I am hoping to attract more sponsors next time; I had some good ones this year;

Mainpoint Fire protection who are based in Cheltenham lent us fire extinguishers, The NFU in Cinderford who provided our insurance gave us £100 towards the insurance, I managed to secure £750 from Heritage Lottery funding through Gloucester City Council. Gloucester College opened up their showers so my masons could wash off their hard work.

Marketing Gloucester the organisers of the Tall Ships Festival helped me enormously as well with various things one in particular was putting us out over the tannoy throughout the weekend alerting people to our presence, we also appeared in their published material and on their website.

The Priory trust for letting us use the Llanthony Secunda Priory site was wonderful and hopefully the money we raised will go some way to helping this historic site.

Obviously the biggest sponsors were the stonemasons themselves and Veizeys Quarry in Tetbury-without either of these there would be no festival.

The Marquee was put up by Alpha hire and the scaffolding benches were supplied by Lansford Access.

With the sale of raffle tickets for my Mermaid carving raising over £1500 I am happy to annouce that the event made just over £2500 profit meaning that The Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust will receive £1635 and The Gloucester Geology Trust will receive £1090.

The winner of my mermaid was Brian from The Forest Of Dean and naturally he was delighted with his win. The winning masons were, Alastair Mason from Dorset who won a £100 voucher from Gibsons tools for his carving of an Octopus, this made £300 in the auction,

James Wheeler won the senior masons prize, £75 tool voucher from Gibsons for his drunken sailor which made £140 in the auction

and Tom Kenrick for his peoples choice who carved a lovely Turtle which fetched £270 in the auction, his prize was £75 tool voucher from Gibsons.

If you would like to see more photos from the weekend then visit http://www.stonecarvingfestival.co.uk

I will be organising the next one for 2015.

 

 

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