Restoration works

The crumbling stonework of the nave north clerestory of St Mary’s is being restored in 2020. These urgent works are the first phase in the proposed 10-year programme to restore the entire building.

 

Below are galleries of the works being carried out thanks to a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and generous support from the people of Beverley. Here we take you on a photographic journey through the project to date as we look behind the scaffolding and take a peek inside the workshop of master stonemason, Matthias Garn. We’ll add more photos to this page as the project continues, so do visit again in the future to see our progress.

 

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Before

Weathered stonework in desperate need of repair and cleaning.

 

Scaffolding goes up and stones are ordered

Work begins at the church in October 2019. From the scaffolding, the parlous condition of the pinnacles is now plain to see. New stones from the quarry in Tadcaster are cut and arrive for carving by hand.

Cleaning and more

Window tracery is repaired / replaced, and stonework is cleaned on the exterior and interior of the church. The before and after shots are striking!

Label stops

The carvings on the nave north clerestory being restored include a number of musicians. Beverley is famous for the huge quantity of medieval musician carvings in its two great churches! We find some nineteenth century graffiti!