Canadian boy creates ‘Lego’ replica of Southwell Minster

Southwell Minster’s architectural beauty has been picked up across the Atlantic since a scale replica of the cathedral was created in Lego by a nine-year-old Canadian boy.

The school boy from Ontario got in touch with The Children’s Education Department at the Minster last month, after deciding to make the cathedral the focus of his study of English cathedrals, as part of a history project.

The Minster’s website manager, Roger Marriott has since been helping him out with photos and pictures to enable him to complete the project.

Roger explained: “He told me that he would like some pictures of the inside of the Minster showing the walls and arches, roof bosses and some of the windows. I also sent him details of the history of the Minster. A few days later I received an e-mail from Tony’s father saying that he had never seen his son so enthusiastic about a project and, in fact, he was spending little time watching television!”

The scale drawing of the Minster, available on the website, proved invaluable and Roger was also able to help further with detailed measurements of various parts of the Minster. Other Minster staff and volunteers also helped with information.

Roger said: “Tony wanted to build a 1:192 scale Lego model of the Minster —apparently his friends know him as ‘The Lego Kid’. At first, he was going to build a scale model of the Chapter House but this proved impossible as Lego bricks do not allow for an octagonal shape. In one of emails I had told Tony that it took approximately 50 years to build the Minster but his father said his son ‘would beat that building his Lego model’. I  then designed and produced five web pages containing a mini photographic tour of the Minster to help Tony understand the building. This has since been added to the main web-site with a link from the Education opening page.”

Acting Dean, Canon Nigel Coates, said: “I have asked Roger Marriott to pass on our warmest congratulations to Tony and we hope that he might visit the Minster some day. This was an extraordinary project for a 9-year-old boy and was very well done.”

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