Renovations The Minster

York Minster is a marvel of the medieval age,

a testament to human faith and the worship of God.

But looking after this 800-year-old building is no easy task.

No stone is left unturned in maintaining its Gothic splendour.

600, anybody? I'm selling it at 550.

GAVEL BANGS Thank you very much, indeed.

This is the story of one year in the life of the Minster.

And for the people who work here, it's much more than a job,

it's a calling.

York Minster dominates the city around it.

But it's a vulnerable giant

and its size has offered little protection against the elements.

Rain, wind and pollution have taken their toll,

and the scale of the renovation work is enormous.

The east end of the Minster is covered by 16 miles of scaffolding.

The £20 million restoration project

is the biggest of its kind in Europe.

And, high above the streets of York,

a new generation of masons are leaving their mark.

There was nothing here, there was nothing left,

so our cathedral architect had to come up with a theme,

and he came up with medieval ailments and illnesses.

So, that's what they're based on.

We've got the plague doctor here. You can see his beak and his glasses.

We've got bubonic plague...

madness, who's quite funny...

and blind man...

we've got broken arm, and then on the corner, we've got the Black Prince,

who died of dysentery, which is why he's looking a little bit poorly.

Not every statue is in pristine condition.

This weathered figure is St Peter.

He has sat above the East Window for hundreds of years.

Now, he's about to be replaced.

There will be a new statue of the saint

and, from his office in the stoneyard,

master mason John David is supervising the plans.

Not only will the carving be seven feet tall,

it will be 150 feet off the ground.

If he was done to scale or even, sort of, larger than scale,

looking up at him, at an angle, he would look...

his body would be slightly squat, compared to his knees.

So, this was accommodated in the original design,

that his knees are actually slightly shorter in proportion to his body,

because it's viewed from the ground.

What St Peter should look like has been the topic of much debate.

A life-sized clay model has been created,

which will be the template for a later carving in stone.

This method I'm using now is a traditional method, really.

The techniques haven't really changed that much

in a couple of thousand years, to be honest,

and this is very much a traditional method,

and it's the way we like to work here.

It's Martin's responsibility to bring St Peter to life.

It's his biggest ever project

and a chance to leave his own lasting legacy on the building.

It's St Peter, isn't it? And he was a fisherman,

so, hopefully he's got that, sort of...

A bit rugged, I suppose...

Slightly weather-beaten.

As long as he's got, sort of, a bit of a personality,

I've achieved something, if it's well liked.

So, it's that aspect of it, really,

and, hopefully, sort of, generations down the line,

there'll be a carver that will come along and think, "Oh, that was OK".

And that's, like, the tradition

that's continued for hundreds of years here.

The carving will take four months to complete,

but work can only start on the stone

when the model has been signed off by the church hierarchy.

He's become a real character that we've grown to know so well

and would fit beautifully here on the Minster.

So it's a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, really.

So, I hope they do say yes.

The replacement of St Peter isn't the only long-term project

at the Minster.

PIANO PLAYS

CHOIR: # This is a beautiful day today... #

Try and look a bit more excited about that.

It's just after 8am,

and while bleary-eyed schoolchildren across the city

are still munching on toast and cereal,

the girl choristers are already at work.

Three, four.

They face a big test.

In a few days, they'll perform evensong on their own,

without adult singers to help them.

The great thing about training children to sing in choirs

is they don't have any experience of what's difficult and what's easy,

so when you give a child a difficult piece of music to sing,

especially when they've been in the choir a while, so are experienced,

they don't think, "Oh, this is hard," they just start singing it.

And when you tell them, after they've performed it,

that actually very few choristers can sing this kind of music

or very few places do it or whatever,

then they, kind of, look at you and say, "Well, it was easy".

The girls are all pupils at the Minster School,

and choir duties come on top of their lessons.

There are boy choristers at the Minster, too,

but this is a girls' performance only.

Robert Sharpe has just a few days to make sure they're prepared.

Good. Can we be careful about Ds in the middle of this long recitation?

# Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord God of hosts... #

So we don't lose those in the middle of it.

'My role is very much a sort of caretaker, really, of tradition.

'And I obviously have an idea

'about the kind of sound I'm trying to achieve from the choristers.

'But quite a lot of what they learn, they learn from each other,

'and they just need gentle steering.'

It's a big moment for Robert.

If the girls can handle evensong on their own, then he'll know

they'll be ready for even bigger challenges later in the year.

A few metres below the surface of the Minster,

a new world is taking shape.

This is the Undercroft, which was dug out in the late 1960s,

as part of engineering work to shore up the central tower.

It's being transformed into a multimillion-pound exhibition space,

which will house many of the Minster's most precious artefacts.

Some of them once belonged

to the man who shaped the Minster that exists today.

Walter de Gray was Archbishop of York in the 13th century.

His grand vision was a minster built in the Gothic style,

that was all the rage on the Continent.

His tomb was opened in the 1960s and it revealed a man of means.

He was pretty special and also enormously wealthy.

So, his ring is made of sapphire, natural sapphire in the middle,

and it has emeralds and rubies and garnets around the edge.

When you see some of the other archbishops' rings

who were just as important,

they're very plain, they might have one stone across.

Everything about Walter is showy.

Walter de Gray's jewels aren't the only artefacts going on display.

There are medieval gospels, in all their splendorous detail,

and an elaborate elephant tusk that dates back to the Vikings.

The Horn of Ulf is important to us

because it's been in our collection for the last thousand years.

It was given to the dean and chapter by a Viking nobleman called Ulf.

He had extensive lands around York and Yorkshire

and, to stop an inheritance row,

he decided to gift the lands to the dean and chapter,

and he did this by filling this horn with wine

and placing it on the high altar, as a symbol.

The Minster's gone through civil war - it was damaged through that -

it's survived three fires,

it's gone through two world wars

and managed to survive it all.

Yeah, it's a really important piece.

The work on the Undercroft has meant

the Minster has revealed more of its secrets.

Archaeologists know that, underneath the building,

there's evidence of a large Roman fortress

and that Constantine was proclaimed Emperor in the city

in the fourth century.

But in putting in a lift, there'd been new discoveries.

Human remains from ancient burial grounds have been uncovered.

But what is fascinating the Minster's archaeological team

is one tiny artefact, which sheds light on York during the Dark Ages.

-There it is.

-Oh, yes.

-This is very special, actually.

This is a styca, minted around 800 AD. This is in beautiful condition.

-It's absolutely perfect, isn't it?

-Yeah. It's unhandled.

-It's never been in circulation.

-No.

-That's quite clear.

There's no wear on it.

There's the moneyer, which is Edwin.

-Edwin. Again, it's equally unworn.

-Yeah. If I just turn it...

-There you are.

-It is actually in very good condition.

-Yeah.

-And you can read the archbishop there. It's Eanbald.

-Eanbald.

I'm not quite sure how exactly to say that.

York in the seventh and eighth and early ninth century is one of the...

most important intellectual centres in Europe and therefore the world,

and yet the archaeology is very ephemeral and very fragile.

So, to be able to recover anything from that period

that, you know, comes from this time of York's pre-eminence, if you like,

is very, very important.

-That's a 5p.

-Right.

You can see, the comparison's very clear,

and it's very, very thin and about two thirds the size.

-Yeah.

-A very delicate object.

It's a big day for the carvers working on the statue of St Peter.

A member of the Minster's governing body is on his way to the stoneyard.

It could be the moment that allows the carving to begin.

-He's had a decent haircut, I think.

-Right.

There had been concern over the length of his hair

and the height of his mitre.

Well, I must say, the improvements have been for the better,

because the mitre's more striking, I think,

when you see it from the distance.

We've had the clearance now from the Fabric Advisory Committee

and from the cathedral's Fabric Commission, as well,

and the tweaks have been made,

and I think, yes, the chapter would be delighted to see it start

and we look forward to seeing it take shape now.

-So, yes, please, do get on with it. Thank you.

-That's great news.

Thanks, Martin.

This is two years of work.

We've gone through all sorts

of processes and procedures and acknowledgements and permissions,

and we've actually now got the go-ahead.

So it's very exciting and it's a huge, huge relief.

From a distance, the Minster looks in marvellous condition.

But get closer and it's a different story.

Some of the stonework is deteriorating

and is in a dangerous state.

It's Richard Shephard's job to raise the cash for the repairs.

'We're standing on the roof of the Zouche Chapel,

'which is on the south side of the Minster,

'and we're looking up at some of these buttresses here.

'And this is just an example of one.'

So you can see from the stonework there

it's the wrong sort of stone, it's different-coloured,

so that will have been a 19th-century repair put in.

And can you also see there are iron cramps in there?

And here's one I did earlier!

This is a piece of stone which has fallen off.

So this is the sort of thing we don't do nowadays,

we don't put iron in to hold stone together.

It works for a bit, but in the long term, it doesn't.

And actually, this bit of stone, I mean, that's come off, another bit...

I mean, it just is very friable, it sort of disappears,

and you wouldn't want a bit like that falling on your head, would you?

Well, I wouldn't, anyway.

Because of the wear and tear,

there's plenty of redundant stone at the Minster.

With millions of pounds needed for repairs,

it's not going to go to waste.

These piles of weathered stones are being auctioned off,

and master mason John David

is saying farewell to a few old friends.

I got to know quite a lot of these stones quite well,

because I'm involved with all the measuring

and re-setting out of all the new stonework,

so a lot of these stones I've had sort of quite close contact with.

But we have no room to put them anywhere,

we don't need them for the archaeological record,

they're surplus to that requirement,

so they're for other people to enjoy and share.

Amongst the battered pinnacles and weathered gargoyles,

one piece stands out.

This collection of masonry was once the base of a huge spire.

This stone isn't actually medieval.

It dates probably from the 18th century

after the spire was struck by lightning.

It could be a raised flowerbed, it could be a pond

or, dare I say it, somebody's Jacuzzi.

It's an unusual auction.

It's not every day such heavyweight items go under the hammer.

Fantastic. There's so much history goes with this stone it's unreal.

It's your chance to buy a part of the Minster!

And it's going to a good cause.

-I just thought they had character.

-Yes.

-I could see them in the garden.

But then, that's what everybody wants.

The plainer pieces without character are not necessarily what people want.

SHE LAUGHS

-Are you happy?

-Yeah!

-Hand your form in over there.

-Yeah, I'll do that.

-That's super.

-And I'll just keep everything from my husband.

-Right.

SHE LAUGHS

Can anybody please put me in £50? Anybody start me at 50?

£30 bid. I've £30. 40, anybody?

As the auction takes off, the stone sells like hot cakes.

70. 80. Hold on. 90.

100. Hold on. £110. 10.

120. At 120. The bid's over here. Are you bidding?

Why not? It's only money!

At £140? 130.

140. 150.

160. 170.

170. 80.

90. 2. 210.

220. Well, I'll come back to see you at 230.

All done at 230?

230. I'm without you at 230. GAVEL BANGS

I've bought a piece, and it was number one.

And, fortunately, everybody was a bit cold, and nobody, you know...

I want it for my garden. Nobody showed any interest in it.

So I got it for £60, that. Can't believe it.

Once people get bidding, it's very difficult not to.

I've bought a bit, but it's a bit more of a manageable size.

It's not going to fit in my handbag! So we've got to work this out.

It costs £10,000 a day to run the Minster,

and yours is only a drop in the ocean, sir, at 1,150.

£1,150. 1,200?

1,200. Thank you.

At £1,400. I think he means it this time. At £1,400.

All done and selling at £1,400.

APPLAUSE Whoo!

Some stones will have special significance.

It's partly in memory of a friend who died...

in December.

And he left us some money, and we thought,

"Wouldn't it be nice if we used the money to buy some Minster stone

"to put in the garden?" So that's what we've actually done.

You're buying all eight stones in your bid price.

Who's going to put me in this time? Anyone going to start me at 300?

300. Two for a bid, then.

150. 200 anywhere? 150 is the bid. 150.

As the biggest lot comes under the hammer,

even the Minster's superintendent of works

gets caught up in a bidding war.

Anybody get 300? 50. Still plenty of value at 350.

£400 bid. 400.

50 with you, sir? I've... Never mind her!

450. £450 bid. £500 I'm bid.

-550. Man or mouse, sir?

-Mouse!

-Pass the cheese!

550 bid. At 550.

The bid's at 550. 600, anybody? I'm selling it at 550.

GAVEL BANGS Thank you very much indeed.

It's going at a bargain!

But our garden just isn't big enough, so I had to cringe and walk away

and just say, "Oh, I don't know that we can have it".

But I think I'd have squeezed it in somewhere

if we'd have actually managed to get it.

But they've got a really fabulous piece there.

It's going to make a very nice feature for our garden,

and we're thinking we can make chairs out of it

and put a table in the middle

and it will be very interesting and part of history.

Well, our house is called the Old Vicarage,

so maybe it needs a bit of York Minster in it!

How we get it home is just a different question.

But it's fantastic. I'm really pleased.

More than £20,000 has been raised.

But it's just a tiny fraction of what the Minster needs.

Back inside the Minster, head verger Alex Carberry

is preparing for one of the more sombre events in the calendar.

Dotted around the Minster

are memorials to military campaigns in faraway lands.

Some are adventures long forgotten,

others are much more recent in the memory.

Today, the Minster is marking

the return of the 4th Mechanized Brigade from Afghanistan.

The unit is stationed at nearby Catterick garrison.

And there aren't many churches

that can accommodate hundreds of Army personnel.

We've been talking about this.

We've had it booked in for possibly the best part of a year

and started to talk and formulate the elements of the service,

the involvement of various people in the service.

So yeah, Ian'll need to take the Archbishop

-during He Who Would Valiant Be.

-Yeah.

Alex has launched his own small military campaign,

marshalling his vergers, to make sure every base is covered.

The wives and girlfriends will start.

They'll move out into position.

It's important the mood is right.

Nine members of the brigade lost their lives during the tour of duty.

In one sense, it's a day of relief for those who have come back,

but a day of sadness,

but very important for the Minster,

because this is one of the things we're there for.

We're there to be, if you like,

a spiritual focus for the whole of the north of England,

and that's what we're being today, as we welcome 4 Mech.

We give thanks for the work of the 4th Mechanized Brigade,

for their operations....

This is far from being the first time that soldiers have returned

to the Minster to remember those who died in foreign fields.

BELL TOLLS

"Last Post" PLAYS

SOLDIERS GIVE THREE CHEERS

Over in the stoneyard, St Peter is starting to emerge.

Three carvers are working on the statue,

each one using a plastercast model, as a template.

As well as being chief designer,

Martin also has the trickiest section to work on.

There's a lot of subtleties I want to get within the face and the beard.

These are easier, the flatter planes,

where the design's quite easy to apply.

I just want some...

Obviously, it's the face, to try and get some subtleties within it.

So, we're at the process of taking measurements from the plastercast

actually directly into the stone, and this is what this apparatus is.

It's just an apparatus for just taking depth, really.

It's a method that they've used since, really, the 1700s,

this pointing machine method.

It's midsummer, and the carvers have three months to complete the work.

The statue has to be in place before the weather turns cold.

If temperatures fall below five degrees,

the lime mortar won't set properly.

But the work can't be rushed.

St Peter remains a long way from being finished.

ORGAN PLAYS

As darkness falls over the Minster,

a big moment looms for the girls' choir.

They're about to perform evensong on their own,

without the adult singers to help them.

On page two, "In the waves of the sea"...

This happens just once each term.

For some of the younger girls,

it will be the first time they've flown solo.

When you're singing without the men behind you,

tell me a few things to think about which we might not necessarily...

The rehearsal is a last chance to make sure the girls are on track.

So could we pick it up, please, girls, from page two,

second line, "In the waves of the sea"?

So one, two, three.

# In the waves of the sea

# And in all of the earth... #

Training the choristers is a very rewarding thing.

I think it's very important that children who are doing this work,

which is very demanding, are having a really great time

and they're coming out of the choir feeling

that they want to carry on singing and getting great things out of it.

# With all these I sought rest

# And... #

Roll it.

Some of the children will be up

-probably well before seven, I suppose, in the morning...

-Yeah.

..and actually work a longer day

than your nine-to-five adult might do in the insurance office.

So actually, for seven-, eight-year-olds

it's a tremendously busy and demanding timetable.

Good. Who's got hiccups?

OK. How do we get rid of that?

Hold your breath till you pass out. Yes.

Just try your best to control it.

# Amen

# Amen. #

OK. That's great. Thank you very much, indeed.

It's very good for them,

cos singing without the assistance of the other parts behind,

it means they become much more responsible for what they're doing.

It's more exposed and more scary, but on the other hand,

without the men there it brings them on as musicians,

which is then of benefit when the men return tomorrow.

For the girls, there's now no turning back.

-ORGAN PLAYS

-The first lesson is written in the book of the prophet Habakkuk,

the third chapter, beginning at the first verse.

# Glory be to the Father

# And to the Son

# And to the Holy Ghost

# As it was in the beginning

# Is now and evermore shall be

# World without end

# Amen. #

They've been a big success. But the work doesn't stop here.

We go straight in again tomorrow morning and pick up,

and we have evensong again tomorrow, this time with the men,

so it's a very busy time.

The girl choristers have had their big moment.

It's time for St Peter to step back into the limelight,

and the finished piece is a revelation.

It's quite hollow-sounding, isn't it? It rings like a bell.

So, I'm just coming up to the final touches now,

just on this curved joint.

There's a little bit of fettling to do

to get this onto the stone which lies beneath it.

But we're nearly there.

Looking at the old one, you could just capture the design

of what was there before, before it was lost completely.

So hopefully it's sort of a rendition of the stance of the original figure.

But obviously, it's a new imagery, as such.

But a lot more detail on it than what was there before.

All the carvings are delicate, but the importance of this piece

means everyone's aware that it's not a time to take any risks.

Once it goes up onto the scaffolding, it's in these lads' hands, really,

and they'll do their good work and pop it in. So, hopefully it will fit!

It's just a short journey to the east side of the Minster,

but it means negotiating the streets of York.

It can rock, you see, so you've got to just take it carefully.

Lots of cobbles in York, so you've got to negotiate them.

So, we're going to take it up onto the hoist now,

and that'll take us to the very sort of top, really,

about 150 foot up in the air, I think, with this one.

It's the end of a long and painstaking process

for Martin and his colleagues.

72 days after they started carving, St Peter is coming home.

You can just see the ghostly outline of the old one,

so it's fitting in nicely to the old image of what was there before.

'To see it in its final sort of resting place,

'that's the most rewarding thing,

'and then they can walk away quite happy, then.'

Do you fancy just poking that up while we guide it in there,

just until it gets on the zinc?

-Yeah.

-We're on there.

-You're on.

-Are you all right?

Er, down a little bit more, Andy.

That'll do.

'Well, I'm relieved, actually,

'so I can sort of, erm, stop thinking about it so much.

'And there's just these little jobs just to finish it off, clean it up.'

And it's there hopefully for the next 600 years.

From ground level, the visitors to the Minster

won't see the detail of the statue of St Peter.

But this has been much more than a labour of love.

It's a work of art.

Martin has created something which was probably there before.

He's got a very special skill of recreating what...

investigating the original form of the statue

and putting the bits back that might be missing.

It's one of the most important statues on the building.

Next time at the Minster...

graffiti artists invade the central nave,

with the full blessing of the clergy,

and it's the countdown to Christmas,

and head verger Alex gets to dress up.

I feel I've finally made it now I've been dressing up as Santa Claus.

Ho, ho, ho! Hello, everybody!