00:00 Hello, I'm Matthew Cousins and I am doing the Exeter Cathedral Abseil on the 4th of May.
00:07 Hello, I'm Anne Eyre and it was my crazy idea about four years ago but we're finally there.
00:12 Alright, so why are you doing the Abseil?
00:15 You can start.
00:16 Well, I'm doing it because I've got deep personal collections here.
00:19 My late husband was Dean here about 40 years ago and it's just a wonderful place and I've lived a lot of my life here.
00:27 And I think the project is inspirational and will be marvellous for everybody in Devon.
00:33 Why are you doing it?
00:35 I think it's a chance to give something back to the cathedral.
00:38 I've worked on the cathedral in Scaffolding for over 20 years now and when Anne asked me if I wanted to take part,
00:46 it's a real opportunity to raise some money for a project which I don't think would get off the ground otherwise.
00:52 No, you're absolutely right about that.
00:54 So why are we raising money for it and why do we need to raise money for it?
00:59 So, although it's a very grand building, Exeter Cathedral is actually one of the poorest cathedrals in the country.
01:07 A lot of other cathedrals have very good commercial activities that go on and that allow them to raise money
01:16 whereas Exeter Cathedral doesn't have that option because of it's such a wide cathedral green.
01:21 So the project to connect the cloisters to the cathedral is going to enable the cathedral to become much more commercial,
01:30 a much more welcoming place to be and yeah, that's the project really.
01:36 And I think for me, I say it's also we can be part of history.
01:41 We're actually managing to build this cloister back on the original medieval foundation.
01:46 So we're putting back what was there once upon a time and it'll just make it so exciting
01:52 and we'll be able as a result to have some of the things, the treasures that are hidden behind doors at the moment on display,
01:58 which will be such fun.
01:59 That's amazing.
02:00 Thank you.
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