Up on the Scaffold: A Rare Chance to See Tavistock Abbey Conservation at Close Quarters
Updated: Aug 11
This year’s Heritage Open Days already offers a special opportunity to discover more about the Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey project with the guided walk on September 17th Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey: From Abbey to Guildhall but after negotiations with both Le Page architects and and the conservation team at DBR we can now confirm an exciting addition which makes this one of the most unusual events in the programme.
Participants will have the opportunity to go onto the scaffolding at Betsy Grimbal’s Tower and see the conservation work at close quarters.
For centuries, the surviving remains of Tavistock’s great medieval Abbey have been part of the familiar townscape. But how often do we actually get the chance to look closely at the stonework, understand how these structures were built, and discover what is required to ensure their survival?
On Thursday 17 September, our Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey: From Abbey to Guildhall event will provide just that opportunity.
The visit will explore the story of the Abbey founded in AD 974, the extraordinary monastic complex that subsequently developed at the heart of Tavistock, and the fragments that survived the Dissolution and centuries of change. But this will not simply be a history tour. It will also take participants right into the story of the Abbey’s conservation today.
See conservation happening, not just the finished result
Work is now well underway on Betsy Grimbal’s Tower, one of the most important surviving structures of the Abbey site.
For Heritage Open Days, we are planning guided access onto the scaffold, where visitors will be able to examine parts of the medieval structure normally seen only from ground level. There will also be an opportunity to hear directly about the work from the conservation architects and specialist stonemasons involved in the project.
Why does old mortar need to be carefully removed by hand? What does a stonemason look for when examining a medieval wall? How do you decide what should be repaired, what should be replaced and what should simply be left alone? And what can the fabric itself tell us about the building’s long and complicated history?
This is painstaking work. The photographs from the site reveal just how intimate the process becomes: individual joints, stones, voids and earlier repairs all have to be understood before decisions are made. Up on the scaffold, visitors will be able to see that process for themselves.
The event will then place Betsy Grimbal’s Tower within the much bigger story of Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey, including our plans to investigate the Abbey’s lost footprint, undertake further archaeological work and bring together research which could transform our understanding of one of Tavistock’s greatest historical treasures.
Final places now available
Understandably, this event has already proved extremely popular and only limited places remain.
If you have been thinking about coming, now is the time to book. Once the remaining places have gone, please join the waiting list. Plans can change, places do become available, and the waiting list gives you the best opportunity of securing one. It will be operated on a first come first served basis.
This is unlikely to be an experience we can easily repeat.
For a few days this September, however, we can take you behind the barriers, up onto the scaffold and face-to-face with nearly a thousand years of Tavistock’s history.
Book now, or join the waiting list, and come and see the Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey project from an entirely different perspective.
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