heather newton is ahead mason, heather, thank you very much for being with us on bbc news this evening what you see, what immediately leaps out at you, what makes you hopeful, or perhaps pessimistic about this project? well, both hopeful, because i think the devastation could have been far more total, it could've been far more total, it could've been a lot worse, but i think there's a lot of trepidation in that the task ahead is enormous. and really i don't think anyone who's in a position to estimate the cost or anything just yet, because it will have to be a very prolonged period of investigation to have a look at it, almost done by stone, and assess the condition of the building. help us if you can to get an idea of what sort of damage done to stonework by fire, because you know, as an ignorant outsider, i kind of think well, it stone, it's going to be pretty durable in the heat, but clearly that's not the case. no, not in these sort of temperatures that would've been achieved there. it's notjust the stone itself, i mean looking back at the sort of restoration works that we re the s

a little earlier and spoke to heather newton, head of conservation at canterbury cathedral and a formerhe told me it would be a complex restoration project. i don't think they will have any problem in recruiting skills. i'm in, there are enormous numbers of people who are highly skilled in every discipline one would need for a project like that. you're going to need project managers, you're going to need engineers, you're going to need architects. consultants. there are very skilled craftsmen. is notjoss stone, it is timber, it is glass, it is metalwork, and textiles as well. as yet we have no idea of the damage that was caused to the interior of the cathedral and there will be losses there that will have to be replaced or at least conserved so that things that can be damaged can be put back into use and will be a record of what has happened to. are there techniques, materials, things that modern mason work can do that your forebears back that modern mason work can do that yourforebears back in that modern mason work can do that your forebears back in the 12th century, one of my favouri