In this lecture we meet the Master Masons who both designed the buildings and ran the site. They commanded everything whether it was sourcing the vast quantities of wood and stone, recruiting the workforce or knowing enough about their various trades to be able to create heaven on earth out of the cacophony of thousands of chisels and hammers. Furthermore, these men were charismatic leaders, but they were continually checked by their fellow Master Masons in the interests of making a building as strong as possible – we only see their successes, after all. They were real people who got into trouble with the law, who occasionally cheated on contracts, who liked to start a job but not to finish it. On the other hand, their creations remain to this day, some breathtakingly beautiful in their exquisite detail causing us, centuries later, to stand and stare in wonder.

Imogen Corrigan lectures for Martin Randall Travel, ACE Cultural Tours and other specialist travel companies leading tours in Britain, Europe and the Far East. She is a NADFAS lecturer as well as being a highly regarded speaker for the U3A, Kent Federation of History, and East Kent National Trust amongst other organisations. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the British Commission for Military History and has been admitted as a Freeman of the London Company of Communicators. Her first book, Stone on Stone: the Men who built the Cathedrals was published in 2019.

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