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Exciting news for Abbot's Kitchen project

A 3D virtual model of the Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey is to be created for the first time as itis revealed the Somerset landmark has won a £280,000 grant.

The model will be made as part of the first measured survey in nearly two centuries – the last was done by renowned Victorian architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, co-designer of the Houses of Parliament.

The survey is the preparatory work for the conservation of the Abbot’s Kitchen due to be conserved and enhanced as part of a major conservation programme at the Abbey.

The work comes as  Viridor Credits Environmental Company has awarded the Abbey a grant of £280,000, through the Landfill Communities Fund, towards the Abbey Kitchen  project to conserve and enhance this magnificent building.

The Abbey now has to find the remaining funds needed for this project which led to the launch of a public appeal for £500,000.

The money raised by the appeal will secure the ruins for future generations by funding conservation work and enhance the visitor experience to the abbey in The North Wall, The Lady Chapel, Crypt and Galilee and The Abbot’s Kitchen.

Janet Bell, acting director, said: “To receive this money from Viridor Credits is a wonderful boost for the work we are aiming to achieve at the Abbey. We are very grateful.”

Lisa Nelson, General Manager, Viridor Credits: “It is with a sense of great pride that we are able to support, through the Landfill Communities Fund, projects that make a real difference to regional and national heritage.”

John Allan, the Abbey’s archaeological advisor, said: “The Abbot’s Kitchen of Glastonbury Abbey is one of the most exciting medieval architectural achievements to be seen anywhere in England.

“It was probably built in the 14th century, and is the only element of the magnificent ranges of buildings surrounding the abbey cloister which survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the time of Henry VIII.

“The kitchen was last the subject of a careful measured survey over 180 years ago, when the renowned Victorian architect A.W.N. Pugin, co-designer of the Houses of Parliament, made a careful measured survey, publishing a superb plan and cross-section in the second volume of his famous book Examples of Gothic Architecture  in 1834.

“The time has now come for the abbey to undertake conservation work which will ensure that the stonework of this ancient building will survive in good condition in the future.

“This requires fresh survey, superseding Pugin’s record. The abbey has enlisted the services of Downland, a firm based in Devizes which specialises in the survey of historic monument, who will create a digitally-based record of the kitchen.

“They will produce not only highly accurate sections and plans of the structure but will also build a three-dimensional digital model which will for the first time allow us to see more fully the complex volumes of the structure and take us further towards understanding this remarkable creation.”

To find out more about the appeal visit www.glastonburyabbey.com/rescueourruins

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