Above, looking up in the Chancel at Beverley Minster, built between 1220 and 1275. Left, lead roofing resplendent –a 10-year programme of repair and replacement for the Minster’s lower-level roofs has been completed. Some of the lead was found not to have been re-laid since the 1820s


to improve the safety of access at high level around the building – themost dramatic ofwhich is the new walkway through the upper part of the Nave roof, the only survivingmedieval roof structure on the building.Newfloors at the tops of both West Towers have also greatly improved the ease and safety of maintenancework in those locations. Ongoing projects include the phased renewal of worn-out lead rainwater fall pipes.


LARGER projects beyond the capacity of the Minster staff have always necessitated engaging outside contractors. The Trustees have usually chosen to “shop local”, and engage and retain nearby firms whom they feel will develop a loyalty to this prestigious local landmark.Masonry repairs have traditionally been carried out byQuibells of Hull, a general building and civil engineering contractor. During the Restoration Appeal of the 1970s phases of work were let on negotiated contracts with Quibells, and helped ensure the survival of their previously ailing masonry division, headed up by the late Laurie Gosling. Sadly, the present economic downturn put paid to that division. More recently, Burrows Davies from York carried


out the stonework associated with reconfiguring the roofs over the 19th-century Vestry building, between the two north transepts. Stonemasonry has always appealed to me as a


marvellously straightforward business, whereby you dig rocks out of the ground, knock the bits off that


aren’t the right shape, and then pile the resulting stones up as walls. As a slight variation, if you pile the stones on wooden formers, or centring, you can create arches and vaults. This is, of course, a trivialisation of a noble craft, but it is true that no other building material requires so few processes of conversion from the raw state to the finished product. All very “green” and sustainable. In essence, themodern mason does exactly the


same as his medieval predecessor. The metallurgy of the chisels may be more sophisticated to help keep themsharp longer, and the head of his mallet may be of some polymer resin rather than applewood – but themason is doing the same thing with those tools, to the same materials, in working conditions scarcely more comfortable andwith a status in societywhich has probably diminished. Some of the bigger and more prosperousmasons’


yards have tools to take some of the hard graft out of the job. Compressed air power tools can speed up the process of roughing out mouldings and shifting unwanted material more quickly, but at the risk of RSI-like physiological side effects. Computerised profiling machines can help to run out basicmouldings by means of successive automated passes of a diamond-tipped circular saw, tracking along in controlled increments. This is a process that can go on overnight, leaving the rough cuts, so that themasons can revert to their medieval craft the followingmorning and hand-finish the mouldings to their true profiles. For decades Beverley Minster had no source of the


dolomitic magnesian limestone, of which it is built and which contributes so fundamentally to its character, for repairs and renewals. Several different limestones Continues on page 50


Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011 43


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