Gwyn Watkins, Stonemason and Architectural Stone Carver.

Having initially completed a Fine Art Degree course, Gwyn subsequently trained and worked as a stonemason and carver before joining the English Heritage stonecarving workshop in London. In the following five years he worked on many large carving projects in and around London, producing gargoyles and decorated tracery canopy stones for Windsor Castle, large corinthian capitals for Apsley House, a die stone for Kensington Italian Gardens in Hyde Park and a new inscription for the Guards' Memorial in St. James' Park.

In 1987 he was awarded one of the first S.P.A.B. William Morris Craft Fellowships, and spent six months travelling the country studying the repair and conservation of old buildings. He moved to Stamford in 1988 to take over the Stonemason's workshop at Burghley, from which he undertakes an annual program of masonry work at Burghley House using conservation repair techniques and lime mortars.

For more information or advice please contact Gwyn Watkins at Burghley House on 01780 766366.