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York Minster is a towering tribute to the 14th century craftsmen who built it. In an age where we use computers to do just about everything for us, it's hard to believe that it was designed using nothing more than a compass, a set square and a straight edge!

Centuries of wind and rain, weathering and erosion have taken their toll on the building and now a multi-million pound scheme is underway to put right 600 years worth of wear and tear to the east front.

York from the top of the East Front.

It's estimated the restoration of the east front听and the conservation of the Great East Window will take around a decade to complete - which is longer than it takes to build most modern buildings.

The east front

The east front is built from thousands of blocks of limestone, many of which are intricately carved, and it contains the largest medieval stained glass window in the world.

The problem is that many of the pieces of stone are severely eroded and the front has become bowed - it bulges out by several centimetres in the middle. This buckling has put the window in 'real danger' according to officials from the Minster.

Mind the Gap! See how this pinnacle rocks.

Over the next few years the window will be completely removed and restored, whilst around 2500 blocks of limestone will be replaced.

Standing with Richard Shepherd, Director of the Minster's Development Campaign, at the top of the scaffold which shrouds the east front, it's easy to see what the problem is.

He puts his hand on a stone pinnacle - the top of which is more than a metre high - and gently pushes. The piece of stone rocks easily!

Richard Shepherd.

"We're looking, I guess, at what must be the largest conservation project in Europe" says Richard Shepherd.

"This is as important a piece of conservation as I think has ever been done on the Minster.

"The west front was the replacement of a lot of stone and the re-doing of the tracery of the west window and that's a brilliant piece of work, finished in 2000. The shoring up in the 1960s and 1970s has made certain the building is not moving so the actual structure is safe.

"What we're facing here is the effects of time, weather, pollution, erosion on stone and glass. The stone itself is very important it's a marvellous piece of work, it's beautifully carved听 - but it contains the great jewel of the Great East Window made between 1405-1408 by John Thornton. This is arguably the largest piece of medieval art in the country and it's certainly the earliest piece of art in the country by a named artist."

Lead plug shows how much the stone has eroded.

Elsewhere, fragments of stone which have broken away from the building lie on the scaffolding planks and plugs of lead which would once have been flush with the surface now stand around an inch proud of the stone.

To describe the scale of this job as 'daunting' would be an understatement.

The east front is more than 100 feet high and is made from thousands of blocks of limestone, some of which have been carved into the most intricate shapes. It can take between five and six months for masons to create replacements for the most complicated blocks.

"It is a vast project" says Richard Shepherd "one can be tempted to be pessimistic, you know will it ever be finished, the old cliche about the Forth Bridge is absolutely true, you just never stop."

The East Front covered in scaffolding.

Looking at York Minster you can understand why he feels like this, the building is immense! Think about it, can you ever remember seeing the Minster without some part of it covered in scaffolding and safety netting?

In the 1960s and 1970s the cathedral was underpinned to stop the Central Tower collapsing. In the 1980s the South Transept was restored after a devastating fire. The west front was refurbished in time for the Millennium and then it was the turn of the Chapter House.

The restoration of the east front will take between 10 and 15 years to complete and will cost somewhere in the region of 拢19 million.

"It's terribly important to remember this is just one part of an enormous building and when we've finished here - I hope the stonework might be finished in five years and the glass in ten years - we then have to move down the top areas of the Quire, particularly the south side. Eventually we'll have to re-lead the Nave roof, there are enormous numbers of windows with medieval glass we badly need to repair."

Weathered stonework around the Great East Window.

The Great East Window

Climb down a couple of ladders from the top of the scaffolding and you come to the top of the Great East Window, which will be the subject of the most painstaking part of the current restoration project. Standing next to the top of the window you can see how the Victorians effectively double-glazed it by creating an extra layer of glass on the outside. This stops the wind and rain from getting to the magnificent work of art on the inside.

You can also see how many times the stained glass has been mended in the past. These repairs have gradually obscured the picture. Experts from the York Glaziers Trust will use newly developed techniques to remove these 'mending leads' and bond individual pieces of glass together. These methods were pioneered by the trust during the restoration of the Minster's St William Window.

Great East Window.

The whole of the Great East Window will have to come out - it's the size of a tennis court and contains thousands of individual pieces of glass. The painstaking restoration will allow the scenes it contains to be viewed in a way which they haven't been seen for centuries - and certainly in a way which will be much closer to their original design.

The scale of the restoration work is matched by the job of raising the money to pay for it all. The man who is responsible for this is Richard Shepherd.

In July 2007, the Heritage Lottery Fund announced it had approved the Minster's application for a grant of 拢10 million pounds towards the scheme. It was a big relief, but no time to relax says Richard Shepherd.
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"The days of appeals are over, we can't just say we need 'x' million pounds, hand it over and then we can all go to sleep for 10-20 years. We've got to keep fundraising all the time because the expenses on a building of this size are vast and of course it's part of our national heritage, it's got to be kept up and in good repair"

Some of the new stonework.

Having such a close view of the work really brings home the scale of what's involved, but you can't help but be inspired by the confidence and 'can do' approach of the people who are masterminding the whole thing.

At the time of writing (November 2007) the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, plus money already raised from other sources, takes the total amount raised so far to close to 拢17 million.

Equally as reassuring is their commitment and desire to 'open up' the story of the Minster so it can be seen, understood and enjoyed by even the most casual visitor.