Inside the Top of the Chapter House

Chapterhouse Roof Walkway

 The first tour of the York Minster consisted of examining the inside of the church including the nave, choir room, windows, architecture, and crypt. The second tour of the Minster was mainly focused on learning about window conservation by visiting the glazier’s studio. Both tours were excellent, and what I learned from them truly helped me appreciate all that I learned on the third. This tour was fascinating: we saw the Stoneyard and carver’s studio, and, most impressively, we  got to go up inside the unique roof of the Chapter House. 
 To get to the roof, we had to ascend a narrow spiral staircase.  At the top of this, we passed through the world’s tiniest door and emerged onto the ledge of the chapter house roof. It was raining, the fence around the roof only came up to about knee height, and the wind was blowing strongly, yet despite all that, being on the roof was more magnificent than frightening.  Carefully, we made our way inside where we were met by a labyrinth of wooden beams stretching higher up than we could see. Honestly, the beams didn’t appear to be in any particular order or place, just a mess of wood jutting in different directions, and it seemed only by sheer luck that the roof was holding together. 

600 year old oak trusswork: looking straight up!

 Our tour guides explained to us that this was not the case; the placement of the beams, their angles, thickness, etc. was incredibly strategic and displayed incredible engineering fortitude on the part of its medieval designers. Seeing this complicated engineering amazed me, it wouldn’t seem possible without today’s technology to erect such a huge and complex structure, but here it was, standing for centuries, created without computers, without cranes, without even nails, and I think it is that fact that made the roof such a marvel. The chapter house roof is truly a tribute to man’s ingenuity, even with little, we are able to do so much. To be able to see the original design of the roof in all its glory, up close and personal, as opposed to just seeing a recreation of a statue or a window from afar, is remarkable. It is for these reasons that the third tour of the Minster really did take my breath away.  


--Jessica Churchill

Chapter House from outside. Scaffold levels are
at least 10 feet apart.  We went inside the roof.

From the inside looking up.  We were above this.