(Photo: L. Collett)
York Minster is one of the great icons of medieval York. It has dominated the city for over 700 years, during which time stone masons have been working almost non-stop to build, elaborate, repair and conserve this ancient structure.
As fashions changed and new decorative schemes were developed, carved stone was removed and sometimes re-used. Even today walls and gardens around the Minster are littered with fragments of stone carvings whose source is probably the Minster.
Stones identified as originating from the Minster, or intended for the Minster, were found on the nearby site of the College of Vicars Choral at Bedern where Minster canons lived throughout the medieval period (from 1250 until the end of the 16th century). Some of the stones were built into college buildings and were retrieved during excavation.
One piece of particular interest is a small sculpted figure made out of Magnesian Limestone. It was never finished and is badly damaged: the head has been removed, the forearms have been broken away and part of the body is broken.
Click on the drawing for an enlarged version.
Find number 1973.13.X,
2834; catalogue number 286. Height of figure 218mm.
For more information: The Archaeology
of York 10/4, The College of the Vicars Choral of York Minster at Bedern:
Architectural Fragments by David A. Stocker.
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