NEXT time you walk past York Minster, spare a thought for the craftsmen who built it - and the craftsmen and restorers who maintain it.

The skills needed to do that don’t come easily. Fortunately York, with its wealth of great old buildings, has - in organisations such as the York Glaziers Trust, the Minster Stoneyard, the city’s various craft guilds, museums and heritage bodies - the pool of talented craftsmen needed.

The city is also doing its best to ensure that those skills are passed on to future generations. Tomorrow, at the Merchant Adventurers Hall, bursaries will be presented to no fewer than 28 craftspeople from York, as well as from across Yorkshire and the rest of the country.

The York Consortium for Conservation and Craftsmanship will be handing out almost £30,000 in total. Those receiving bursaries will include stained glass restorers, stonemasons, blacksmiths, carpenters, sign-writers, picture conservators and boat-builders.

Many of those receiving awards are in the early stages of their careers. So they’ll be using the money to pay for training, or to buy tools or equipment.

Among the York people to get bursaries will be stone mason Sean Henderson, who will put his towards the cost of an HCA Level 3 in Heritage Skills, and Wendy Sommerville-Woodiwis, who will use hers to help fund her work experience painting historic locomotives.

The York-based Barley Studio, which specialises in stained glass conservation, will also receive a award to help pay towards the cost of taking on an apprentice.

The York Consortium was founded in 1998 to promote the craft and conservation skills needed to protect our heritage for the future. Through its Foundation arm, it has been handing out bursaries for years to ensure those skills are passed on to the next generation.

“These skills are absolutely vital for the future of our heritage,” said Martin Stancliffe, the York conservation architect who is the Consortium’s chair. “York has a national as well as local role in identifying and promoting them.”The bursaries will be handed out during the Consortium’s annual meeting, which begins at 7pm tomorrow. The meeting is open to anyone who wishes to attend. There a talk by Jonathan Ashley-Smith, who was head of conservation at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 1977 – 2002.