Lakeland Stonemasonry was founded in 2019 when John built his dream business around the craft he knows best.
Growing up in Keswick, in England’s Lake District, slate quarries, hills, and dry-stone walls shaped not just his career, but how he sees stone itself, as a material with memory and history. Now living in Victoria, that connection has not faded, and his work today carries threads of both places: the raw, rugged texture of Cumbria and the coastal beauty of Vancouver Island.
John began in traditional Lakeland dry-stone walling, then went on to work with slate, Lakeland stone, and later the sandstone of the Eden Valley. Then, after six years with Heritage Masonry in Victoria, where he learned to read local stone with the same instinct he once had for stone back home, he decided it was time to build something of his own — and Lakeland Stone Masonry was born.
These days, you will likely find him onsite with his dog Oggy nearby, measuring, fitting, adjusting, and shaping each stone by hand. His satisfaction comes from the small details most people never notice.
