A Means To An End

But what did the work entail?

A large number of workers were employed to drag down the stone. They did this by boring a hole through the rock with a gimlet; one would drive a sledgehammer while the other turned the gimlet. Then they would have to hang from a rope and place gunpowder and a fuse in the hole and light it.

Each "bonc" (gallery) of the rock had its own name - Bonc Isa, Bonc Bach, Bonc Sir Fôn, Bonc Buenos Aires and so on. The rock would fall in various shapes and sizes.

The next task was to break the stone lumps into shaped sets of a particular size, and this was the setter's job using various hammers.

When the sets were ready they were put on wagons, which ran down to the jetty on rails, before being taken by ship to the industrial cities.