Our Charities

Being able to foster the future of our craft in skills training and building restoration is central to our existence today and in order to meet these objectives we have two separate charities.  While the Trustees of each are Liverymen of our Company the charities are independent of the Masons’ Company.

The Craft Fund

The Craft Fund was set up in 1985 to promote any charitable purpose which will:
1. Encourage the exercise and maintain the standards of the craft of stonemasonry
2. Preserve and improve the craft of stonemasonry or
3. Foster promote and increase the interest of the public in the craft of stonemasonry

The charity provides financial assistance for Yeoman Masons who are seeking training to obtain the Worshipful Company of Masons’ Journeyman Mason’s Certificate or the Worshipful Company of Masons’ Master Craftsman’s Certificate.  It also provides funding for apprentices, students and trainees. See Apprenticeships here.

It also administers the separate Sydney Mason Fund, which awards an annual bursary at the City & Guilds of London Art School or other suitable training centre.  The winning student is nominated by the school.

The Craft Fund is willing to consider any applicant wishing to enrol in an approved training course in the craft of stonemasonry, either full time or part time if supported by an employer. Exceptionally, it may be willing to consider applications from recommended persons who are training independently. The Training Co-ordinator and the Craft and Training Committee who advise the trustees of the Masons’ Company Craft Fund charity will wish to be satisfied that applicants are committed to staying in the craft and industry after their courses.

In addition to its main task of supporting individual students and apprentices, the Craft Fund makes an annual grant to the Building Crafts College to help it give students workplace experience and has supported the periodic Stone Bench competitions in the City of London.

In collaboration with Stone Federation of Great Britain it helps organise and fund the Natural Stone Awards and Duke of Gloucester Awards.  It also provides a grant towards the cost of sending students from the Building Crafts College to an annual study tour in Italy. The Craft Fund sponsors a number of opportunities presented to endorse the interest and development of natural stone in the built environment.  These have included several stone festivals and jointly funded demonstrations by Freeman Brad Steele at Blist’s Hill Victorian Town at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Telford with the Masons’ Company Charitable Trust.

For the love of stone

The Charitable Trust

The Charitable Trust was set up in 1968 to contribute to the Lord Mayor’s Charity each year, donate to City-related schools and organisations and to appropriate bodies nationally that care for many of Britain’s historic stone buildings.  Its educational strategy is to widen the horizons of school leavers by encouraging them to take an interest in stone, stone carving and our stone heritage and to present a stone-skills as a career.

The aim is to involve members of the Company in Schools Outreach Programme  which funds Stone Taster days for schoolchildren, hosting talks and ‘have a go’ sessions at their workshops.  Some of the Company’s former sponsored apprentices assist with similar sessions at their cathedrals. 

A Short Video on the Work of the Charitable Trust

Donations

You will see elsewhere on this site that we support and encourage those involved in the craft of stonemasonry. We also have general charitable aims (see The Charitable Trust) and we work in conjunction with the Lord Mayor’s Charity.

To help us to carry on this work, we welcome donations however large or small.

You can donate:

  • By bank transfer to The Masons Company Charitable Trust at CAF Bank, Sort Code 40-52-40, Ac No 00010357
  • By bank transfer to The Masons Company Craft Fund at CAF Bank, Sort code 40-52-40 Ac No 00010393
  • By Standing Order or Direct Debit: to same bank details as above
  • By remembering us in your Will

If you want to donate regularly, it helps us enormously with our financial planning if we know about it in advance.

Similarly, if you plan to remember us in your Will. Please contact the Clerk