A £100,000 scheme to spruce up a North Yorkshire town’s marketplace will see 300,000 cobbles being relaid by hand.

Contractors have begun the painstaking task of relaying worn-out parts of the cobbled and Yorkstone-paved areas in Thirsk’s market, as most of the work is not suitable for being carried out by machines.

The marketplace was resurfaced in the early 1990s, when it was a requirement that the traditional surfacing of cobbles and Yorkstone paving was used.

Coun Brian Phillips, Hambleton District Council’s portfolio holder for corporate services, said: “The nature of the materials we are using means we are restricted to two time windows in the year when cobbles can be laid.

“It needs to be carried out when weather conditions are relatively mild and damp.

“When temperatures start to fall, it is too cold and the materials don’t set properly, while they dry out too quickly when it is hot.”

The council said the work was scheduled for completion before the Bank Holiday at the start of May, with as little disruption as possible being caused over the Easter weekend.

It said most of the marketplace parking remained available and there were other spaces nearby.

Coun Phillips said: “There is no ideal time for this type of work, but it needed to be undertaken and, once completed, we will have a marketplace to be proud of.”