Today is the first in a series of posts: Stonemasonry in 30 objects. We want to celebrate the old, the new, the technological and the traditional – so we’re featuring images of one object a week from our AF Jones workshops in Ipsden, Oxfordshire.

If you’re in the industry, you’ll recognise many of them and if you’re not, we hope it will give you a quick weekly insight into the world and work of stonemasonry today.

The first is a banker. It’s been the basic work surface for masons for hundreds of years and gives its name to a specific type of stonemason – The Banker Mason, who carves detail at this work surface.

A banker itself can be any hard surface used by a mason. Traditionally it was a block of stone, though more recently wooden or metal tables covered with carpet to protect stone being worked – both pictured here.

At AF Jones, our banker shop is named after Jonny Griffin, our longest serving Banker Mason who retired last year after 49 years working for AF Jones as a Banker Mason and was the third generation of his family to work with us.

This is week 1/30 posts in this series.  The full series can be found on our LinkedIn profile – or use  #stonemasonry30