[Closed] How much faith would you have in medieval masonry?

I'd say quite a lot if its still standing now

^^ this

Most medieval masonry has fallen down - it's mostly the churches that remain because they have been constantly patched up. Except for the churches that fell down anyway 100 years after they were built.

Re the OP - imagine bringing the blocks up there in the first place on a load of rickety ladders with 12th century safety gear 🙂

churches were built on a no expense spared basis and very well built ( if it wasn't for big H8 there would be far more) so i'd have no issue with the build quality....

I had to stop watching that. I'm amazed what good condition that stone work is in, has it not been replaced recently? ie in the last 150 years?

Plenty still fell down though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_structural_failures_and_collapses

Your not wrong there, over 20 churches in the short space of only 1000 years 😉 last time i go near a church im proper concerned

This little old church in Durham's doing ok for 900 years old.

[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7194/6792691192_2089610f53.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7194/6792691192_2089610f53.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/bmfjro ]002[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7904024@N08/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

Er that's not a definitive list, obviously!

I've heard plenty of stories in local histories about churches falling down - and other old buildings.

The medieval buildings that are still standing are a self selecting sample. Ie the ones that weren't well built have already fallen down.

Reminds me to recommend the book 'Sarum' by Edward Rutherford. Love that book to peeeces, main character is an apprentice stonemason at Salisbury Cathedral, but the novel spans the history of England from when the English Channel was formed until present day. Fascinating.

William Golding (Lord of the Flies) wrote a book called The Spire, which is a fictional account of the (atually happened) addition of the spire to the tower, which had already been raised a couple of times before. Since Salisbury cathedral has no real foundations, the extra weight of the additions and then the spire, which is actually a very thin limestone shell on a wood armature, caused the four main pillars at the crossing of the nave and the transept to bow inwards and sink several inches into the ground. Consequently the spire is actually about four feet out of perpendicular and has had several major strengthening works carried out incuding the construction of a second steel armature from within to prevent it all falling down.

So it may be medieval but it's actually in quite a fragile condition. If you happen to be in Salisbury the building is a mind-blowing piece of lightweight stone construction and the roof and spire tour is well worth the money. You get as far as the foot of the spire and go outside through a hatch to look up to where that film was made. There's a little door half way up from which the climbers would have emerged as the inside became too narrow.

First bloke climbed without a rope?

"If there's two or three of you up there, and one of you moves, you can feel the spire slightly swaying. Not a massive amount but enough to notice that it is moving with the wind."

Nope, nope, nope, nope!