Tony Webb, retired Master Carver at St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

In 1952 Tony served a 5 year indentured apprenticeship as a woodcarver, stone carver and modelling at the firm of E.J & A.T. Bradford’s in London. They were the largest firm employing 20 carvers, restoring carvings on the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, Hampton Court, and most of the Wren churches and Livery Companies in London. With this training he decided to specialize in the style of Grinling Gibbons, the 17th century carver who took the skill of carving to a new level with his naturalistic swags of fruit & flowers.

This unique skill proved to be the turning point in his career, as his sample won for the company a competition held by St Paul’s Cathedral for the limewood carving on the new pulpit, designed Lord Mottistone.

1972 he was approached by St Paul’s Cathedral to join their staff becoming the Master Carver after a couple of years. Working on the restoration programme of eroded Portland stone. He began systematically restoring the exterior stone carvings and the Gibbons wood carvings in the Quire stalls, along with designing many new projects within the Cathedral in that particular Gibbons style.

He expanded this work beyond the Cathedral to include other churches and historic buildings in London as well as All Souls College, Oxford. In doing so he was able to employ Hannah Hartwell to train in the style of Gibbons and to work competitively.

In 1991 he was involved in the Wren exhibition at The Royal Academy and later in1998 the Grinling Gibbons exhibition at the V&A Museum. During this time he also became a part time tutor at Croydon Adult Education, which he continued for 18 years.

Retiring from carving in 2000, he gives talks on his life’s work to interested groups and students, thereby following his passion of encouraging young people into the craft. In this capacity he can often be found as a judge at the competitions held by the City & Guilds of London Art School and the Building Crafts College.