C O N T E X T 1 4 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 6 21 George Gilbert Scott’s Doncaster Minster With regard to any new anchor ties into the brickwork, the ideal would be to install them into the mortar joints, subject to load testing. Nylon plug and stainless steel screw ties were proposed, noting that the plug could be removed at the end of the work, and the hole reused in the future. Finally, a condition of the scaffold work was that a survey drawing be prepared accurately locating all of the fixing positions for future reference. Doncaster Minster Often with conservation and repair work undertaken high up, the scaffolding represents a significant portion of the overall cost of the works. Churches can pose particular challenges, due to their traditional form (the relationship of nave, aisles, chancel, tower, transepts and so on, with a lack of a clear route to ground for the scaffold and its vertical loads. Doncaster Minster is a Grade I listed church of cathedral proportions. Designed by George Gilbert Scott following a fire in the medieval church, it was completed in 1858. As part of a grant-aided conservation project, a scaffold was required to undertake stained glass, lead roof and masonry repairs to the north transept. Early on it was decided to take advantage of the available space below, and use an independent scaffold for the north gable, with scaffold buttressing to provide its stability, thus minimising the need to fix into the masonry. However, the sides of the transept rise above the lower aisle and organ chamber roofs. Here shorter runs of buttressed scaffold were proposed, to bear down on to the roofs below. Just before the contract began, roof repairs were added into the work, necessitating a temporary roof over the transept. This modified scaffold design now involved relatively high loads bearing down on to the historic roofs, warranting a detailed assessment of the roof structures. One of the roofs was fully obscured by the massive 1862 Schulze organ. With time constraints a factor, a revised scheme was agreed with Historic England that avoided loading these roofs, but instead required a number of fixings into the masonry. Scaffold beams were installed to carry the scaffold and temporary roof loads across the existing roofs.The inner bearing for these beams was formed by installing a pair of bearing brackets fixed to the masonry, using a number of close-centred anchor ties. Scaffold beams were installed to carry the scaffold at Doncaster Minster.
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