Heritage Open Days

The Heritage Quad at York Minster opens to the public for the first time on Friday 18 September, as part of the national Heritage Open Days festival. It's the home of the Minster's stonemasons and one of two new buildings that make up the cathedral's Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills and Estate Management. Together they've turned the Minster Precinct into a campus for research, education and training in traditional craft skills.

On the day, you'll meet the team that looks after the building and its grounds: stonemasons, glaziers, scaffolders and gardeners. There's live carving to watch, too, so you can see the work happening rather than just hearing about it. The centre was made possible by donations from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Julia Rausing Trust and the York Minster Fund, with support from the Friends of York Minster and PMJ Masonry.

It runs from 09:30 to 15:00, and each visit takes about 45 minutes. The meeting point is in Dean's Park, near the Old Palace (Minster) Library, with the Heritage Quad itself at Minster Yard, York, North Yorkshire, YO1 7JQ.