WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL has launched a fund-raising campaign to restore the external wall of the south nave aisle, offering donors who give £1000 the opportunity to have their initials carved on the back of a replacement stone.
The new project, Stone by Stone, was launched last week. The work is expected to take ten years and cost £1.5 million.
Part of the fund-raising effort is the “Sponsor a Stone” campaign. Those donating £500 will support the cleaning, conserving, or repointing of a single stone in exchange for a tour of the building and a talk to learn more about the work carried out by the cathedral’s stonemasons.
Those who give £1000 will have their initials carved on the back of a replacement stone and receive a digital photo of the finished carving. Those giving £2000 will receive the benefits of a £1000 donation along with the opportunity to take part in a scaffolding climb and see the conservation work from close quarters.
“When you’re taking out old architecture, you can quite often find messages or little time capsules from previous masons, bishops, or other people in history,” one of the stonemasons, Chris Herron, told the Church Times on Monday.
“It’s an insight into who these people were, who not necessarily built the cathedral but who gave something towards the fabric to help with its longevity. I think having your name in the fabric is a nod, a thank you, an acknowledgment to how they’ve helped with the continuous care of such a prestigious building.”
Winchester CathedralA stonemason works on Winchester Cathedral’s restoration
Recent inspections and surveys showed that the south nave aisle required significant attention. Gargoyles and stonework around windows and door openings have deteriorated. Additionally, stained glass and supporting metalwork need careful conservation.
The surveys revealed that some earlier repairs — dating back to the Victorian era — had used hard cement mortars. “The cement prevents any movement of the building, and the building needs to naturally move and swell in different temperatures and have a bit of flexibility to it,” Mr Herron said. “It’s preventing water transferring from stone to stone throughout the building; so you quite often get areas where the stone starts collapsing from the inside out.”
The director of development, Alasdair Akass, said: “The more we find out about heritage conservation, the more we realise that actually there have been periods where it’s been inappropriately restored or conserved. Having the opportunity to make that right is really important.
“To ensure that our civil cathedrals are financially transparent and say, ‘We’ve got a moral and a statutory obligation to make sure that we are custodian to this amazing place as best as we can be,’ comes with a spiralling price tag and it’s really, really tough when you’ve got a cyclical programme of restoration like that.”
The repairs began near a pedestrian route, Curle’s Passage, which links the inner and outer areas of the Cathedral Close. They will be carried out section by section and the amount of time spent per section will vary. The stonemasons and other experts do not yet know how extensive the work will be until they survey it.
“They know, for example, the one that they’re on at the moment is going to be sort of labour intensive, but the deterioration is at different stages,” Mr Akass said.
Mr Herron appreciates seeing the methodology behind the historic building techniques and the ways in which different societies approached construction.
Winchester CathedralWinchester Cathedral
“I like finding reused architectural pieces,” he said. “You can take a stone out, thinking it’s just a nice square shape, and then, on the back of it, you’ll find it’s a reused piece of stone from the old Minster. So, we’re looking at a piece of stone that was once carved 1000 years ago; then it’s been reworked 600 years ago.”
Monday was especially busy for the stonemasons and other workers, who were pleased to be working in cooler temperatures on the scaffolding after last week’s heatwave. “We’ve got a few services coming up later; so we’re going full scale, knocking everything out while we can,” Mr Herron said.
Mr Akass believes that the Stone by Stone project will also allow people to find out more about the stonemasons and their craft. “It’s the people who aren’t necessarily visitor facing who’ve got the most exciting, interesting stories to tell,” he said. “They’re very, very supportive of this whole campaign, and we think of them as our rock stars — literally.”
The Dean of Winchester, the Very Revd Chris Palmer, said that the project was about “keeping heritage craft skills alive as well as keeping the building alive”.
“Different cathedrals across the country are working together to ensure that stonemasons for the next generation can be trained and support people to repair these buildings for a long time to come,” he said.
In the stonemasons’ workshop, a five-minute walk from the cathedral, are damaged gargoyles waiting to be mended. The face of one has been completely eroded, but the stonemasons will use “surveys and historical records to actually fashion something that would have actually been there”, Mr Akass said.
Winchester CathedralStonemasons work on the fabric of Winchester Cathedral
In another corner, a purpose-built gargoyle has been designed with an oversized gap for a mouth which will contain a card reader to be placed on the way to the cathedral’s gift shop. “He’s a sort of a modern-day donation machine, but with medieval origins; so all that’s quite exciting,” Mr Akass said.
The cathedral also hosts the 12th-century Winchester Bible, which is currently on display in a tucked-away room. “You’ve got these incredible internal treasures, but actually the exterior — which has faced all manner of threats such as air pollution, wind pollution, weather, and so on — that’s critical for us being able to display these amazing internal treasures.”
Dean Palmer said: “Cathedrals that take their eye off conserving their buildings get into a mess and end up with very big bills further down the line. So the really important thing is for us to stay on top of the conservation and be proactive about it.
“If cathedrals don’t see it as an ongoing continuous task, that’s when things start going wrong with the buildings. The scaffolding may seem a bit annoying, but really it’s good news, because it means we’re looking after the place.”