Episode 51 - Rachael Wragg (Heritage Stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral)

Today’s guest is Rachael Wragg, a Heritage Stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral. If you are on Instagram, you might know Rachael from her award-winning account ‘TheGingerMason’, which has over 100,000 followers. After Rachael starting the account as an online portfolio to showcase her work during her apprenticeship, it rapidly gained a huge following through which she now shares the skills, challenges and quirks of life as a Cathedral stonemason. Her unique perspective gives viewers a really interesting glimpse of spaces around the Cathedral that most people never get to see – so it’s definitely worth checking her TheGingerMason account. Rachael initially went to university to study Fine Art and we talk about the difference between apprenticeships and Higher Education University degrees – and how she felt pressure, like many of her peers at that point in her life to follow a traditional Higher Education route, which she retrospectively says was probably not the right choice for her at that time. After a period of working in retail, and painting portraits to supplement her income, she was sent an advert by a friend for a trainee stonemason apprenticeship at Lincoln Cathedral, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Her application was successful and she started retraining in her late 20’s, gaining an NVQ in banker masonry (level 2 & 3) which she then followed with a Foundation Degree in Historic Building Conservation & Repair with the Cathedral’s Workshop Foundation. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Historic Building Archaeology alongside her job at the cathedral. LINKS: Lincoln Cathedral: https://lincolncathedral.com/ Cathedral mason named Traditional Craftsperson of the Year: https://lincolncathedral.com/latest-news/cathedral-mason-named-traditional-craftsperson-of-the-year/ Stonemason using social media to showcase craft: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cn43zlnr9lwo Heritage skills reward for Rachael Wragg: https://englishcathedrals.co.uk/latest-news/heritage-skills-reward-for-rachael-wragg/ Women’s Hour: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jkqzfx Bath College: (Stonemason Qualifications): https://www.bathcollege.ac.uk/ Moulton College: https://www.moulton.ac.uk/subjects/stonemasonry London (Building Crafts College): https://thebcc.ac.uk/stonemasonry/ York (Stonemason Qualifications): https://www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/study/stonemason-apprenticeship-level-2 CWF (Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship): https://www.cwfcathedrals.co.uk/