On the morning of July 9, 1984, York Minster was ravaged by fire. By the time the blaze was extinguished, the magnificent old building was smoking and blackened, the south transept exposed to the sky.

Peter Gibson, the secretary and superintendent of the York Glaziers’ Trust, remembers walking into the cathedral on his way to inspect the Rose Window.

“There was water lapping around our feet,” he recalled, in a feature published in The Press to mark the 25th anniversary of the disaster. “And the amount of light coming down from the exposed south transept ceiling… it was amazing.”

Fortunately, the Rose Window itself had survived: though the damage was considerable, as Peter discovered when he climbed up to have a look. The soldered joints on the lead holding the glass panes together had melted, then solidified again. The glass itself was smoke-blackened and discoloured – and most worryingly of all, it was badly cracked. The entire window was taken down for repair in the Glaziers’ Trust workshop.

On November 4, 1988, four years after the fire which wrought such dreadful damage to the great building, the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited York for the dedication of the restored South Transept.

Accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Kent, she and her husband entered the Minster where, according to a supplement published in the Evening Press, the Queen stood “momentarily entranced beneath the beautiful and delicate roof, so proudly resplendent above her”. The Dean of York, the Very Rev John Southgate, then formally dedicated the roof and vault “for the good of all God’s people”, before the Queen unveiled a plaque in the floor.

Later, the Royal party had lunch at the Treasurer’s House, before the Queen visited the workshops of the York Glazier’s Trust, where the Rose Window had been so painstakingly repaired.

The restoration of the Rose Window is one of the proudest achievements of Peter Gibson’s life: and he still well remembers the day on which the Queen visited to give her seal of approval to the work of him and his team.

“After the service of dedication of the window in the Minster she came to the workshop,” he recalls. “I introduced her to members of the team who had been working on the restoration of the window. Then she came upstairs into the workshop, and I showed her some pieces of glass, and gave her a little competition.”

It was the kind of test he liked to give to visitors, he says – asking them to arrange pieces of stained glass in chronological order.

“She was very successful. She had a good eye for glass, and particularly for judging the age of glass, which isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. I could have given her a job any day!”

After the devastation of four years before, the rededication of the restored south transept and Rose Window and the visit of the Queen was a hugely proud moment, Peter recalls – not only for him, but for the whole Dean and Chapter and for everyone in the Glaziers’ Trust workshop who had worked so hard on the glass. “It was a memorable day.”

The Minster Policeman’s tale

JOHN Key was one of the Minster policemen on duty on the day in 1988 when the Queen came for the rededication of the South Transept.

He was on duty at the great west door as the Queen emerged onto Duncombe Place after the ceremony. “There was a huge crowd waiting for her outside,” he recalls.

He will never forget the Queen pausing for a few moments in the open doorway, just a few feet away from him.

She took her glasses off, and reached into her handbag for the case to put them away. John was surprised to see that instead of an expensive, monogrammed case, she had a woollen case obviously knitted by children. It had two large crossed eyes on it.

He couldn’t help giggling at the sight and as she slipped her glasses into the case, the Queen looked at him and smiled, he recalls. “Then she said to me, directly: ‘Thank you very much’. I could have cried. I wasn’t one of those people queuing up to see her by invitation. It was spontaneous. Then she said goodbye, and walked out of the door.

“I will always, always remember.”