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Top stars lined up to aid Minster restoration fund
Paul Jeeves CELEBRITIES including Dame Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart and Lesley Garrett will perform in York to boost the multi-million pound campaign to ensure the future of the city's Minster.
Tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of the launch of the fundraising drive, which has already netted 2.5m in pledges and donations and is backed by the Yorkshire Post.
The three stars are supporting the campaign, although details have yet to be confirmed.
The bulk of the money will be used for a mammoth programme of restoration to York Minster's East Front, which will cost 23m and take 10 years. The campaign is also aiming to raise 7m for the Minster's educational work, and the work of the choir.
Approval has been given by the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England for work to start on the first phase of the restoration. It
will involve repairing stonework on the north-east side of the Minster.
York Minster's director of development, Richard Shephard, said: "Clearly the first year of the York Minster Development
Campaign has gone well...Euphoria, however, tends to be short-lived. It seems monumentally ungrateful to say so, but the donations received so far, generous though they undoubtedly are, will not cover more than this first stage in the restoration."
The first year of fundraising has seen a scheme launched by the Duke of York, the patron of the campaign, allowing people to sponsor a stone to be replaced on the East Front, which raised 50,000 in its first month. Glaziers are now working on a similar scheme for people to sponsor an image in the Great East Window.
The York Young Soloists are giving a concert in aid of the campaign on July 21 as is the Minster Choir with soloist James Bowman on May 24.
Anyone who would like to contribute can contact
the Minster on 01904 557245 or email richards@yorkminster.org.
paul.jeeves@ypn.co.uk
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
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