Mike Bridgen is given a guided tour of English Heritage’s collection of historic objects

ARCHAEOLOGIST Susan Harrison loves her job as the curator of English Heritage’s top secret treasure house at Helmsley, where more than 800,000 of the region’s historic artefacts are stored.

Everything from flint arrowheads and carved stonework to a medieval water tap, adorned with a cockerel, and giant stone cannon balls fired by Edinburgh Castle’s famous Mons Meg, are all kept under lock and key.

As curator, Mrs Harrison has not only been involved in cataloguing and indexing everything, but also in using the very latest technology in detective and forensic skills.

Now, for the first time, the public is to have the chance to view the store and its contents.

English Heritage has just spent £140,000 installing hitech electronic shelving which will enable even more treasures to be stored there – including 100 tonnes of Roman stone from Hadrian’s Wall.

It has decided to mark the investment with a series of open days for the public – but people will only receive directions on booking a visit.

Mrs Harrison is delighted with the move and also wants more museums and sites to borrow and exhibit items.

“We do get requests already,”

she said, pointing to a crate bound for Iceland.

“It contains a copy of the Lindisfarne Stone, which shows seven Viking warriors with swords raised on one side and the Day of Judgement on the other.”

Helmsley is English Heritage’s main store for more than 100 “guardianship” sites it is responsible for in an area from the Scottish Borders to Lincolnshire and Cheshire.

The new shelving is reinforced to take the tonnes of stonework housed there.

The stone from Hadrian’s Wall will be arriving later this summer and will not only enjoy better protection, but will also be more accessible for students and researchers, from home and abroad, who want to study it.

Other stonework comes from many of the region’s abbeys and castles.

Rievaulx Abbey, where 400 years of debris was cleared in the early 1900s, is a good example.

Stonework and other artefacts which had been protected under metres of soil were suddenly exposed to the elements and left on site.

“The best bits of masonry and stonework can often give you an idea of what the rest of the building looked like and, although they knew such finds were significant, they did not always record them fully,” said Mrs Harrison, who lives in Thirsk.

She and her team are putting together a small display using carved stonework from Monk Bretton Priory, near Barnsley.

Black from industrial pollution, the sandstone was originally bright yellow and was used to make the arches in the cloisters.

People will also be able to see a marvellously detailed effigy at the centre of a puzzle.

Mrs Harrison is using all her detective skills to try to confirm whether it is that of Henry Percy, who was buried by the high altar in Fountains Abbey in 1315. He is shown wearing chain mail and holding his shield bearing a rampant lion. The effigy is said to have been damaged in 1831 when a group of drunken militiamen dropped it after stealing it.

“We think that is who it is, but it could also be one of the Mowbrays, who was also buried by the high altar and whose shield also bore a rampant lion,” said Mrs Harrison.

“We have been using infrared technology to try to detect any traces of paint, which would tell us exactly who it was, but so far nothing has shown.”

Even so, the effigy bears spectacular detail and is thought to have taken a year to make – another puzzle is whether it was commissioned by Henry himself or by the family. His wife, Eleanor Fitzalan, was buried in Beverley Minster.

Among the artefacts from Fountains Abbey are bright ceramic floor tiles, which added to its splendour, and the medieval water tap adorned with a cockerel.

It would have been connected to lead pipes which the monks installed to supply running water and was almost certainly for hands to be washed before entering the refectory.

The abbeys were not the quiet, reflective places people imagine when wandering today’s ruins.

“They were centres of industry.

The monks were highly skilled – they were excellent architects, engineers, businessmen and farmers,” said Mrs Harrison.

“And there would always be building work going on. You never see York Minister without scaffolding and that is what it would be like in those days. Maintenance and repairs were always being carried out or extensions built.”

The new shelving has increased the storage capacity at Helmsley by 60 per cent, capable of taking 430 tonnes of archaeological objects.

Mrs Harrison has completed special forklift truck training to skilfully stack the weighty objects herself.

She has also completed an index system so that every single item – no matter how small – can instantly be found. The vast range of items also means different micro-climates are provided to give the most ideal conditions.

Kevin Booth, senior English Heritage curator for the North of England, said the investment had allowed much better use of the same space.

“It’s a leap forward in our ability to keep masonry and other items safe and sound, while still making them accessible for study,” he said.

The first free public tours are on Wednesday, with others on June 24, July 29, September 23 and October 21.

Places must be booked in advance through the tourist information centre at Helmsley Castle visitor centre, tel: 01439-770173.

There will be three tours on each open day and the store is wheelchair-friendly.