MAJOR works have started at a North Yorkshire abbey to put right a failed 1940s restoration scheme.

Repairs carried out to the 13th century south transept at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, just after the second world war, have deteriorated badly.

The 1940s workmen used cement mixed with granite fragments to replace crumbling medieval mortar, but that mixture has quickly eroded.

The cement is now being removed, and a medieval mortar mix will be put back in.

Consultant architect Peter Pace said: "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 reversed the process."

The work is being funded by English Heritage.

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."

Updated: 10:46 Friday, October 04, 2002