Sunday Feature: Wheels and Stones

Robert Powell reads from George Sturt's The Wheelwright's Shop, an account of the process of building wooden wheels and making wagons. Punctuating Sturt's observations about apprentices, pricing, drunken sawyers, injuries and the threat of machinery are accounts of a contemporary stonemason, Simon Verity, who carved in cathedrals and villas, and Charlotte de Syllas, a jeweller whose work is shown in museums. There are also stories from a firm of coachwrights in Kent. The stories reinforce Sturt's pride in his craft and highlight the struggles of trying to survive the threats from outsourcing, using cheaper materials and looking for commercial success