Tuesday, July 17, 2012

All Saints North Street church to be restored to 15th century form

Restoration work has begun at one of York’s finest medieval churches to return a chapel to the way it was almost 600 years ago.

Officials at All Saints North Street want to restore the Lady Chapel to the form it took in 1421, when a hermit-like “anchoress” in the church had seven famous visions of the Virgin Mary.

The church plans to replicate a 5ft 10in statue of Mary, which was larger than the average female height for the time, and to recreate the original tiled floor pattern, based on surviving fragments and old church records. The originals have worn and been lost over time.

Wardens have already found medieval oyster-shell paint pots and a coin that has yet to be dated and professional archaeologists began excavation work yesterday.

Click here to read this article from the York Press