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♪ [music] ♪
- [Kate Giles] Buildings like York Minster are really stories in stone.
They're the product of centuries of repair and replacement.
And as archeologists, we want to unpick that story and tell that story.
- York Minster really is out there on its own and to go into the building
and be surrounded by the greatest collection of Medieval glass in Britain
is an incredible experience. It's a window of enormous ambition
in both scale and indeed subject matter because it's about the beginning
and the end of everything.
♪ [instrumental music] ♪
- The nature of any kind of research on a building like this is collaborative.
So, there are lot of discoveries along the way that build up into a really
interesting story.
My name is Dr. Kate Giles and I'm senior lecturer in the Department of
Archaeology at the University of York. I'm responsible for understanding the past of
York Minster and working with the Minster today in the work that they're doing on the East front.
What's beginning to emerge about the East end of the Minster is a very complicated story
of the ingenuity and craftsmanship of Medieval masons and glaziers.
- I'm Sarah Brown, I'm an lecturer in art history at the university and I direct the
University's MA programme in stain glass conservation and heritage management.
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- This is the first time that a project of this scale has been attempted, with
researchers working alongside conservators. So, the partnership really
between the university and the workshop has been a new benchmark for taking
projects of this kind forward.
- So, our first phase is on the building and in the archives researching the history
of repair and replacement.
Then there's a very interesting part of our work which happens when the stone
comes off the building. And that's where archaeology
comes in again, looking in minute detail at the stones and what they can tell us
about the Minster.
- Working here, you just feel like you're really part of the legacy of this window
and your initials are on the new painted pieces and so you're gonna be in that
window for the rest of time, till it comes back down again. It's just brilliant.
- [Sarah Brown] All of us still find it incredibly exciting working with it
because it's such an extraordinary, rewarding project.
- We're dealing with centuries of craftsmanship and actually that process
still continues today. We combine that with cutting edge technology to produce
drawings that the stoneyard use. So it's very much a case of modern
technology helping to understand traditional techniques and it's wonderful
to see that new phase of the story of the building emerging from the stoneyard.
- The traditional glass painting skills remain absolutely critical to what we do.
But of course to that we ally an increasing understanding of the material
science of the object and to see the window emerge from a degree of obscurity
and lack of legibility to the kind of results you see here is of course
immensely rewarding.
And along the way, our understanding of the window will have been transformed.
- We feel very much part of the story of York Minster ourselves and I'm sure in
250 years, future generations of archaeologists will be looking at what
we've done and that's a great feeling.
♪ [instrumental music] ♪