大象传媒

'York Minster Revealed' is a massive project which aims to open up the story of the Minster so it can be seen, understood and enjoyed by even the most casual visitor. It includes the multi-million pound restoration of the East Front and the Great East Window and also involves significant improvements to the facilities available to visitors and access to the building.

"It's huge" says Louise Hampson who is in charge of the 'York Minster Revealed' project.

"If you actually try to think about the whole thing at once your brain falls out of your ears, so you have to think about it in parts, but it does all knit together, that's the joy of it.

"It will transform the Minster. Not only is it essential from a structural point of view, particularly for the East Front, but in terms of its long term appeal to visitors, to people's understanding of the building and for training the people to be able to work on the building in the future, it is absolutely vital".

A central part of this is a plan to create a kind of piazza and public outside space in the area outside the South Transept, on Deangate. This will be the biggest change to the area around the Minster since traffic was banned from this part of York in the early 1970's.

The work will help train a new generation of craftsmen with the skills to work on and conserve buildings like the Minster. It will also be a way of unlocking some of the secrets of the design of the building so they can be appreciated by many more people.

"Every thing about the interpretation is possible because of the work, the work allows us to do the training, so it all slots together" says Louise Hampson.

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.