forensic analysis

 

As these derelict structures were unlisted and privately owned our client could not expect to receive public funding to help save them, although costs would be immense. So we went into financial partnership with him to restore them as our offices.

 

It was clear to us from the outset that the medieval framing had been collapsing into the ground for centuries, dragging a thin skin of later encasing masonry down with it. Deep post–medieval deposits had buried the lower framing causing it to rot away entirely. The whole of the extant framing would have to be supported on scaffolding to stop it falling apart and remain in position until structural integrity was returned to the frame, piece by piece, working from the ground upwards.

But which ground? Modern street level or that of mid-14th.c York? There really was no choice for a full restoration. A timber frame is an interdependent wooden cage. It cannot work as an integrated structure with its crucial lower bearing parts missing. Putting them back would also mean restoring Coffee Yard to its medieval ground level, so the York Archaeological Trust was engaged to find it. With its archaeologists working below us we climbed back into the inconvenient scaffolding to resume our forensic analysis and recording of the extant oak superstructure.