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Canterbury Cathedral is falling apart at the seams, with chunks of masonry dropping off its walls and a fifth of its internal marble pillars held together by duct tape.
The extent of the building's disrepair was revealed yesterday at the launch of a global campaign to raise £50 million over five years for urgent and long-term renovation and conservation. The cathedral, the mother church of worldwide Anglicanism which was founded in 597 by St Augustine, was the scene of the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and has survived extensive bombing of the city during the Second World War. But Allan Willett, the chairman of the trustees, says it is now facing its biggest challenge — serious corrosion and pollution. "Despite its 900 turbulent years, it is the next few years that represent this cathedral's time of greatest danger," he said. The picture postcard image of the cathedral belied its true state, he added, and if nothing was done, parts of it might soon have to be closed to visitors for safety reasons. John Burton, the surveyor of the fabric, said that the stonework was now deteriorating too fast for the cathedral's regular maintenance and conservation programme, which cost £1 million annually, to keep up. The cathedral was at a "critical point in history" and if action was not taken "deterioration will turn into dereliction", he said. "We don't like to admit that we have had to tie bits of the columns together because we are proud of the building, but we do," he said. Masons had to "sweep" the exterior walls to remove chunks of wall that were threatening to fall off, and pieces of stone had become dislodged from the towers and fallen on to the roof, he added.
Heather Newton, the head of stone conservation, said that 20 per cent of the hundreds of 12th century Purbeck marble pillars that line the interior walls of the cathedral were bound with tape to prevent them crumbling. She added that a number of crockets, the decorative ends of the pinnacles on some of the towers, had been blown off in storms. The first priority for the cathedral will be the huge task of tackling the roof, where the support beams are beginning to rot and the lead has become so thin that rain is leaking through a growing number of holes. An estimated £2 million is needed for the West Tower for urgent work on the buttresses to prevent falling masonry, and a further £5 million for the Bell Harry Tower, where 500-year-old carvings are wearing away. The re-leading of the nave roof and repairs to the stonework around the clerestory windows and tracery will require £6.5 million worth of work, while an additional £3 million is earmarked for the quire, presbytery and Trinity Chapel. Another £8 million will be spent on the archives and library, the medieval stained glass, including the 12th century oculus window, and other work. The authorities also want to secure the cathedral's music and enhance its visitor facilities. The cathedral hopes that it can appeal to Anglicans and wealthy benefactors worldwide, and is to open offices in North America and Asia. The dean, the Very Rev Robert Willis, said that all avenues of fundraising would be considered, though suggestions that the cathedral could sell the Archbishop of Canterbury's house or collaborate with wealthy Muslims might not best serve the local community. |
