Builders

'Technology' means the right tools or equipment to do a job, and knowing how to use them. Technology may be advanced, like the computer. Or it may be simple, like the windmill or the spinning wheel.

We can still see the castles, cathedrals, and churches of the Middle Ages. We admire their high stone walls, towers, and huge windows filled with coloured glass. Their carved stone vaults carried higher and wider roofs than anyone had built before. The masons who built them were skilled craftsmen and artists.

Their scaffolding was made from wooden poles roped together. Men pulled the heavy stones up with ropes and pulleys. For arches and vaults, they first made a wooden frame, then set the stones in the frame and cemented them together.

The masons were bands of craftsmen who travelled from job to job. Cathedrals took years to build. Some were built and rebuilt more than once. Not all the buildings were perfect - walls sometimes collapsed. Many a mason lost his life in an accident.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 75