WORK has begun at a North Yorkshire abbey to put right a failed restoration scheme undertaken in the 1940s.

Repairs carried out to the 13th Century south transept at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, just after the Second World War used cement, mixed with granite fragments, to replace crumbling medieval mortar, but since then the transept has been subject to accelerated erosion.

Consultant architect Peter Pace explained: "Mortar not only keeps masonry in place, it's also meant to absorb moisture from the surrounding stonework and take the brunt of weathering. But cement is exceptionally tough and not very porous, and its use at Fountains Abbey has essentially reversed this process."

The cement is now being removed from the transept and replaced with a medieval mortar mix.

English Heritage is funding the work and its regional director for Yorkshire, David Fraser, said: "Cement probably seemed the ideal material to use back in the 1940s, but in this case it proved totally counter-productive.

"It also underlines how far conservation techniques have advanced over the past few decades. We have a much better understanding of the mechanisms of erosion and perhaps an even greater admiration for the original builders of our great abbeys."