Friday 18 May 2007

More Vault Work

Last time it was yellow; this time red. Yesterday evening, a slightly smaller version of the crane that inspected the vaults appeared in the Cathedral after closing time, to fix some brick work in the arch above the Grand Organ.

The workmen spent the first half-hour learning how to manipulate the great arm. I was horrified that they would crash into the arble organ screen, or one of the chandeliers.

Our maintenance staff, Tom and Bernie, together with Neil, our Estates Manager, were on hand to keep an eye - you can see them mid-right, enjoying the first of many cups of tea through the night!

The crane will pin some of the brickwork over the Organ (and indeed the organist!) that required urgent attention. Work on the vaults and domes will come later; we are investigating ways of scaffolding the Cathedral interior that will cause minimal disruption.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the Cathedral was built, there were no yellow or red monsters to hoist the builders to the heights.

Are there pictures of the workers and the scaffolding used during its construction. How did they get up there back then?

I am reminded of the book by Ross King: "Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture".

anon said...

I prefer the yellow one!