What are Stonemasons' Lucky Roman Stones?

I work for my family's stone masonry business, which was established in 1920 by my grandfather.

When I was a younger mason in the 1970's, I worked at Woburn Abbey where I met an old mason called Vic. He told me many tales about the Abbey and the stone with which it was built. The one that intrigued me the most was when he showed me some small circular stones. His father gave them to him. He told me that they originated in a quarry near the Abbey.

He told me that according to masonry legends, these stones were thought by Roman masons, and masons ever since, to be extremely lucky. Many old masons and even some younger ones still carry them, to this day.

I was also told that the Romans placed blocks ofthis stone under their roads, like Watling Street, for instance. Vic presumed this was to protect the armies and travellers who used them.

Several years later, our firm was asked to quarry stone for the Abbey. Vic arrived on many occasions to show me where to find the lucky stone. It was in one layer, known by Vic as the "Hammer Layer".

The biggest problem I had was when Vic told me that the stones had to be a complete circle, no bigger than a Mason's thumb nail.

To make the circle, I put small pieces of stone into the lathe and slowly shaped them to the size of Vic's original stones. Many broke in this process. I did get better at it.

One of the last times I saw Vic was at the quarry, where he was sitting on a large block of stone and flicking the lucky stone off his thumb high into the air and catching it. He had a big smile all over his face and when I asked him why, he said "I've now achieved something I promised my father many years ago, to find a lucky stone".

Another Mason came and showed me three stones, which he said were "lucky stones". Two were yellowing and one was almost black. I told him I did not think these were the same stone. He said, "yes they are boy" the colour comes from them being kept in the mason's tobacco pouch. These three stones belonged to my father and two uncles and the stones had seen them all through the First World War safely.

While working for a London mason during the Second World War his boss gave a piece of lucky stone in a red ring box to the Queen.

He then worked at the Palace and the other masons teased his boss saying "the lucky stone must have worked".