Hi all as you are probably aware I not only organise the Gloucester Stonemasons Festival but run my own business Cat’s Eye Carving as well.

With this in mind I will be organising the next festival in Gloucester in 2018.

Please get in touch if you would like to be involved in any way as a participant, a volunteer a sponsor or even a stall holder..

I hope to have more stands as well as food and drink available.

The Priory have just been awarded a sizable heritage lottery grant as well so they should have some of their plans underway by then.

I look forward to seeing or hearing from you.

Thanks, Carrie Horwood.

Everyone was busy working hard to complete their carvings in time for the auction. Here are some photos of Sunday morning.

The auction took place at 3pm and raised just over £3000. The profit from the auction will be donated to the Priory Trust.

There were three prizes of £150 in tool vouchers generously donated by Steven Travis of Stone Working Tools and these were voted for by The Priory Trust who chose Mike Gardner’s Hipno Ram, The  stonemasons who chose James Wheeler’s Hippy Hippo and Steven Travis who chose Ollie Annaly’s Walrus and seal pup.

Here are the photos of the finished carvings.

The Worshipful Company of Masons ran a champagne draw for masons mark and Mike Gardner won that.

The raffle prizes as follows; 1st prize my carving of the elephant was won by Russell Blakey from Birmingham, second prize, a 1hr carving class was won by a lady from Cornwall and the third prize of a 30min have a go at stone carving was won by our auctioneer, Mark Stafford Lovett

Amazing first day, everyone has worked so hard and here are a few photos,

The stonemasons will be finishing their beautiful carvings today, they have until 2.30pm. The live auction is at 3pm at The Llanthony Secunda Priory.

Have a go at stone carving and other will be on for most of the day but during the auction there may be a pause, it gets very exciting when the stonemasons carvings start to sell.

Hope to see you there.

The nearest postcode for the site is GL2 5JH, this actually takes you to the industrial site opposite. GL2 5JQ will take you to the pay and display car park at Gloucestershire College.

If you follow the directions for Gloucester Quays it will bring you to the right side of Gloucester for the festival and there is plenty of parking at various car parks around Gloucester.

The Llanthony Secunda Priory is situated about 5 minutes walk from the docks where The Tall Ships festival is taking place and it is right next to the blue and grey building of Gloucestershire college, there is the Red Sula Light ship moored up on the canal next to the sight which is visible from the docks and St Anne’s bridge.

Please be aware that if you look at Google maps the roads are not up to date. I am pleased to say that all the roads and bridges are now built and the area is not a building site!

The Gloucester Stone carving Festival takes place on the 23rd and 24th May at The Llanthony Secunda Priory,a 12th century Augustinian Priory. My event is open to the public between 10am and 6pm and is free to enter.
It  is located on the canal in Gloucester sandwiched between Gloucester College and The High Orchard pub opposite bikini bathrooms. If you’re driving along Llanthony road on the way to Hempsted or the rubbish tip you will drive past it unless you are on the lookout!

Set back off the road behind green railings there is a green area peppered with what once would have been magnificent medieval structures, you can walk through here to get to the canal tow path or indeed the bright red Sula Light ship moored up on the water. You can see this interesting range of buildings if you look back toward the docks from St Ann’s Bridge as you cross over going past Sainsbury’s toward to Peel centre.

I set up the festival to enlighten people to this magical craft, bringing together stonemasons and carvers with the aim of raising money!

This year I have 20+ stonemasons from around the country with varying levels of expertise, they are given a block of stone generously donated by Veizeys Quarry in Tetbury and less than 20hrs to carve an animal themed sculpture.

I provide them with a marquee and scaffolding benches, keep them fed and watered throughout the weekend and they carve in such a way that enables them to finish in time for the auction, which takes place at 3pm on Sunday 24th May.

I have carved a beautiful elephant which is the raffle prize and the draw will take place after the auction, tickets are just £2 each.

As well as the stonemasons there are pop-up shops and activities, including The Llanthony Priory Trust, The Gloucester Geology trust, The Newport Ship Trust, Have a go at Stonecarving, Cotswold Archaeology, Gloucester City Council and 6 pop-up shops!

Please scroll down to see points of interest about varying details of the festival, there are many photos and post from the 2013 festival if you would like to see what type of carvings you may see at this years event.