Weymouth College, home to the best stone masonry training courses in the UK, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dorset’s renowned Boss Stone Carving Competition, which tests the skills of current Stone masonry and Conservation students.
To mark this special occasion, this year’s competition is offering an open invitation for guests to come and view this display of amazing traditional skills.
The Boss Stone competition is held at the College’s Dorset Skills Centre Campus at Poundbury, Dorchester and runs from 9am on Wednesday 14thMay to midday on Friday 16th May, with final judging and presentation of prizes taking place shortly afterwards from 1:30pm-2pm. All guests are welcome.
A boss stone is a carving that forms the meeting point of several convergingvaulting ribs. They remain some of the finest surviving medieval stone carvings still in existence and are often intricately carved withfoliage, heraldic devices or other decorations, including animals, birds or human figures or faces.
Competitors have 2.5 days to carve their own boss stone from a block to exacting standards before their creations are put before the keen eye of expert judges,who will be marking on attention to detail and creative ability. Previous winners have gone on to design and build various public commissions, including the planned monument to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, the 19thCentury anti-slavery campaigner and MP for Weymouth.
The competition, which started in 1994 at the College’s old Newstead Road site before relocating to Poundbury in 2010, is supported by national companies including Hanson Bath & Portland Stone, Worshipful Company of Masons, William Anelay Ltd and J P Masonry Supplies.
