Ancientandmodern
Howdo huge old churches stay up? Part of the answer lies in the labour of generations of skilled and dedicatedworkers,whose efforts tomaintain, repair and reneware all too often overshadowed by the sheer spectacle of the buildings themselves.Overseeing all this activity is the churchArchitect. Ian Stewart,Architect to one of our finestmedieval gems, BeverleyMinster, reveals the intricateweb of talent that has gently guided the building into the 21st century. Photographs by Simon Barber
workshops, glaziers’ studios, and so on. At Beverley, the foundation of theMinsterOld Fund during the reign of Elizabeth I ensured the survival of this great building, and the present trustees of that fund remain responsible for the upkeep of the structure. The Vicar, Churchwardens and Parochial Church
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Council are responsible for the use of theMinster, its services and pastoralwork, and consequentlymaintain the “equipment” thatmakes that possible – heating, lighting, organ, bells, clock, etc. The Trustees discharge their duties through their
Surveyor and theMinster staff, at this time two dedicated craftsmen. Steve Rial is a plumber in the true, old sense of theword, in that heworkswith lead, both on the roofs but also in the glazing. If push comes to shove hewill also solder bits of copper tube or glue plastic pipes like amodern plumber. PaulHawkins is a joiner and handymanwho joined us in April 2010 from
Facing page, theWest Front of Beverley Minster, a triumph of the Perpendicular. This page, Ian Stewart on Minster duty
he greatMinster of Beverley has been a parish church since the Reformation. As such, different arrangements for maintaining the fabric had to be established fromthose usually available to the cathedrals,with their Clerks of Works,masons’ yards, carpenters’
Burton ConstableHall. Bothwill turn their hands to virtually any tradewhen called upon to do so. They are committed to theMinster, intensely proud of it, and strive to ensure that the quality of theirwork isworthy of its setting. For some 30 years the Surveyor directing the
efforts of theMinster staff and their predecessors – Harry Lorenz,DesHunt,HarryWigham, AlanHunsley and the recently retired Steve Everett –was Ross Allenby. Rosswas a breed of general practice surveyor nowvirtually extinct.He could turn his handwith calm efficiency to any branch of his profession, be it surveying, estate agency, valuations, auctioneering, whatever. Like all truly indispensable individuals, his last task before retirementwas to find his own successor; this Ross fulfilledwith usual aplomb: John English, following a year of “shadowing” Ross, has seamlessly carried on in the role over the past four years. Continuity of this kind is extremely important for the successful care andmaintenance of a large, ancient building such as theMinster. Ross’s and nowJohn’s progress reports to the
meetings of the Trustees, nowadays bi-monthly, are an invaluable archive of care. They also formthe basis of the annual report to theDiocese ofwork carried out under the special permission,whichwe enjoy, known as the BeverleyMinsterGeneral Faculty.
My role as Architect in all of this is relatively
peripheral. I carry out the quinquennial survey of the whole fabric, as statutorily required by the Church of England through theDiocesan Scheme for the Inspection of Churches. The resulting document becomes, in effect, the Five Year Plan for fabric repair andmaintenance.When larger projects arise,which require drawings and specifications to be prepared and outside contractors engaged, I get involvedwith producing these documents for specific Faculty applications, inviting tenders and administering contracts for theworks. It is a division of labourwhich seems to haveworked verywell over the years, without ever having been formally codified. Other professionals, such as structural engineers and archaeologists, join in thiswork as necessary. SamPrice, of London-based consulting engineers
Price&Myers, has been our engineer formore than 25 years, and RichardMorris, our consultant archaeologist, for even longer. I remember lively discussions between himandmy predecessor and late partner, Emil Godfrey,whowas involvedwith the Minster for around 30 years until his death in 1982.
IT IS a huge privilege to continue to be involvedwith this superb building. Ten years ago Iwas also fortunate enough to be appointed as Surveyor of the Fabric of
Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011 41
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