"The outside quoins ( corner stones ) were relatively simple, in as much as anything was simple in this build. There was a lovely group of sawn white granite lengths on site, which we requisitioned amongst some stiff competition ( wanted for some 'lesser' use it in a rival installation ) if I remember correctly.
Whilst it was sawn and fairly regular the stones weren’t uniform. They were a variety of sizes varying an inch or two between themselves, and some variation within, one or two were tapered. So there was much measuring and checking to ensure we could get groups of 4, more or less the same, so that the doors would be just about symmetrical, not to mention finishing at the same height.
It was going to be a shame to cut up the lengths, but it would give us a good start, and we thought, look very clean and precise. As it turned out we could get enough. The least regular of the chunks could be adjusted (ground down) to make the final quoins, just below the springers, at around our envisaged height of 72” for both doors. There was even enough to make 2 pairs of tie stones. The major worry with these quoins was that there was not enough material for spares (or any mistakes?). If I had miscalculated, if a chisel went astray, if a corner spalled !
The blocks were carefully cut square leaving an original cut edge for the inside of the door. The face was then marked for a batter of 1:10 - millimetres again coming to the fore … if the stone was say 255mm tall then the offset at the top was 25.5mm more, the face was marked at 10mm at base an 35.5mm at the top on the two ends, the marks joined top side and bottom- joining the dots again – and handed over to John, Mark et Al to perform their chiselly magic, (which included dressing the outside faces of each stone)
I have always respected their abilities with a hammer and chisel, something I have little experience of, I am sure they got fed up with my “be careful”s, “don’t chip the corners” entreaties. They tell me it was a friendly stone to work, whatever my views of them changed from respect to envy. No room for error, and there was none, not even with my measuring (little did they realize what a novelty this is – the porch in my house has a very posh window which I originally measured for an upstairs bedroom, the porch ended up being built to fit the window that didn’t fit in the bedroom… enough said.
Interestingly the decision to have clean tight fitting quoins here dictated much of the build of these temple doors.The mica schist used in the walls had to be carefully chosen and often cut to fit buttes to the corners, so that it too was relatively tight, and then the voussoirs too needed to be as precise as the quoins in order to not look incongruous."
(The treatment of the third door opening in the temple was a bit different from the other two, and the story of that will be told later.
