What a Medieval Stonemason Actually Earned Building a Cathedral

In 1351, England made it a crime to pay a stonemason too much: about four pence a day for a master of freestone, three for the rest. Follow Thomas, a freemason on the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral in the 1340s, through summer and winter wages, unpaid holy days, the lodge and its master mason, the falls from the scaffolding, and the Black Death that suddenly made every surviving mason precious. Then see why the wage freeze failed, why masons' marks were never secret symbols, and why so many of these men gave their whole working lives to buildings they would never see finished. Built on real sources: the Ordinance of Labourers (1349) and Statute of Labourers (1351), the Exeter Cathedral fabric accounts (1279–1353), Gervase of Canterbury on William of Sens, L. F. Salzman's Building in England down to 1540, Knoop & Jones's The Medieval Mason, and the Phelps Brown & Hopkins builders' wage series. Pay figures are typical rates; they varied by site, year and skill. Subscribe to Hearth & Coin for more everyday life and money in history. #MedievalHistory #Cathedral #History Chapters: 0:00 A crime to pay him more 0:38 The mason 1:56 What a year paid 2:29 The lodge and the master 4:05 The mark 5:06 The danger 6:18 The plague and the pay freeze 7:42 Never finished