FLOODS FIGHTBACK: The Viking city that WILL rise from the depths

The 'glass floor' that has been such a feature of the museum since 2010 has all had to be taken up already. And much of the rest of the 'set' will, over the next few weeks, be completely stripped out.

Damp, deserted and depressing it may all be: but it is a lot better than it was at the height of the floods which struck York just after Christmas.

Then, one whole end of the set - appropriately enough, the end which recreated the Viking wharf - was under a couple of feet of water. "Quite literally, the River Foss was in here!" says Sarah Maltby, Jorvik's director of attractions. And with the power out, it was pitch black.

"You were feeling your way with your toes," says Jorvik spokesman Jay Commins, recalling that day. "You had to use torches. It was surreal."

SWAMPED: Jorvik when the floodwaters were at their peak

Astonishingly, on the morning of the day Jorvik flooded, the famous attraction was open for business as usual.

It was the day after Boxing Day - December 27. "We had visitors in that morning. We were open for about an hour," recalls Sarah. The underground museum was supposed to be sealed against water, and no-one dreamed it could possibly flood.

Then someone noticed that water was creeping towards the back door.

"We got the visitors out, then we took one of the fire doors out and put it up across the back door and bitumened it in," Sarah says. It seemed to hold the waters back - and at least gave staff time to carry out of the museum all the irreplaceable Viking artefacts and objects it is famed for: wood carvings, combs made from antler, the famous coin die. "It was a busy afternoon!" Sarah admits. "We have about 1,000 objects."

That evening, the attraction was still dry. But with river levels still rising, a couple of staff members were left on duty overnight to monitor the situation. "And at some point in the middle of the night, water began to come in," Sarah says. "The power went, and by morning, everything was between half a metre and a metre under water and there was no power, no phones, no wi-fi."

Jorvik when it was under water

Staff threw themselves into work that day: getting more torches so they could check on the extent of the flooding; sorting out pumps to begin the laborious process of pumping out the filthy river water. It was only that evening that it really hit Sarah. "You stop, and you're thinking 'what now? What lies ahead?' she says.

What lay ahead was a gradual realisation that much of the famous attraction could not be salvaged - and that essentially it would have to be stripped out and rebuilt.

But with that recognition came a realisation, too: this could actually be an opportunity.

When it opened in 1984, Jorvik was way ahead of its time: an underground Viking city recreated on the actual site of Viking remains, complete with moving time cars, animatronic Viking figures that talked - and a recreation of the smells of Viking times, right down to an outdoor latrine.

Museums and attractions from all around the world queued up to learn how Jorvik did it.

Jorvik in its heyday: the Viking wharf

But in the 32 years since, times, and technology, and our understanding of Viking Jorvik itself, have all moved on. The attraction's last major refurbishment was in 2000, when it was expanded and re-imagined. There was a smaller refurbishment in 2010, including putting in the glass floor.

But this disaster of the floods offered a real opportunity - to re-imagine the Viking centre using the very latest technology, and our very latest understanding of the Viking world: to give it once again the same wow factor that it had in 1984.

The insurance will pay for a complete 'like for like' restoration, says Sarah - as well as covering the cost of lost income during the time the museum is closed. That will mean dedicated staff can be kept on.

But Jorvik has greater ambitions than simply being restored to the way it was on Boxing Day.

The York Archaeological Trust which runs it (and for which it is the major source of income) has launched Campaign Canute, which it is hoped will raise another £2 million over and above the insurance money.

With that, it should be possible to reinvent Jorvik so that it becomes, once again, a world leader.

The precise details of what will be possible are still to be decided. But as Jorvik bosses envisage it, the basic layout will remain the same (it is, after all, laid out above actual Viking excavations.) The time cars will stay, and the recreation of Viking Coppergate, too, will be kept much as it was - this end of the set was above the waterline.

Jorvik in its heyday: a time car passing through the streets

But much of the rest of the set - including all the area around the Viking wharf - will have to go, as will almost all the still and animatronic figures that populate the Viking city. It may just be possible to save the famous grunting man on the toilet - although he'll have to be sent off for a thorough examination, Sarah says. "He was, after all, sitting in water."

But most of the remaining animatronic and still figures will have to be completely rebuilt: along with the set itself, and even the walls paintings which create the sense of the larger Viking city extending into the distance.

So what might it be like once it is all finished?

A lot noisier and a lot busier, for a start, Sarah says. There will be a lot more animals everywhere - hens, geese, dogs, and livestock such as sheep and pigs. There may even be a wolf. And there will certainly be vermin.

Vermin? Weren't the Vikings supposed to be clean - at least, compared to their Anglo-Saxon contemporaries?

Personally, maybe. "But they just chucked all their rubbish out at the back," Sarah says.

The museum's walls, too, may well be active screens, rather than simply still paintings - adding to the sense of this being a big, crowded, noisy, smelly Viking capital.

And while the time cars will still navigate the same route through the crowded streets, those sitting in them will see a lot more on their way around. "We will be building in a lot more surprises," Sarah says. What kind of surprises? "They wouldn't be surprises if we told you!" But there will be moments as you go round, she promises, when you'll catch things out of the corner of your eye and think: did I really just see that?

The museum area, too, will use the latest in digital technology to display Jorvik's unique Viking artefacts in a much more interesting and interactive way, Sarah promises. "We'll be able to bring them alive. People can have so much information at their fingertips, now."

It sounds as though the pioneering spirit of 1984 will be very much alive and kicking in the reinvented Jorvik that eventually rises from the waves.

Timetable for rebuilding a Viking city

It will be a year before the new-look Jorvik can reopen, says director of attractions Sarah Maltby.

Over the next few weeks the set - including the plaster of Paris floor that mimics the mud streets of Viking Jorvik - will be stripped out. There will then have to be a period of several weeks in which the interior of Jorvik is completely dried out. Because the underground city is essentially built in a sealed tank, the water can't actually get out: it is only once the set has been stripped away that we'll now exactly how much water is left below the surface.

Once it is dry, the inside will them have to be thoroughly cleaned - the water which got in was pretty filthy, Sarah points out.

Only then can the long process of rebuilding begin.

So is there a timetable for when the new-look Jorvik might reopen?

"We're aiming to re-open for early 2017, to coincide with the Viking Festival or Easter," Sarah says.

In the meantime, Jorvik staff will be busy keeping the attraction's name in the public eye.

The schools programme will continue - though at DIG, the York Archaeological Trust's venue in St Saviourgate, and at the St Saviourgate Methodist Chapel, rather than at Jorvik itself. And there will be a series of exhibitions running from may over the summer: the first, to be held in the Kerrigan Room at the newly-reopened Theatre Royal from May, focussing in life and death in Jorvik, and early medieval medicine.

There will also, later in the year at venues yet to be confirmed, be a 'Horrible Histories' style exhibition, and an exhibitions de-voted to Viking treasure and belief.

Become the face of Jorvik?

Campaign Canute aims to raise £2 million towards the restoration of Jorvik. Among the sponsorship opportunities will be the chance to sponsor an animatronic animal - a goose or a pig, say - and even the opportunity to have your face immortalised as a Jorvik Viking.

One idea the York Archaeological Trust is looking at is giving people the chance to pay to have a likeness of themselves made into one of the attraction's famous animatronic Vikings. It won't come cheap, however - each animatronic figure costs about £50,000.

• To find out more about Campaign Canute, or to make a donation, visit jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk