A TEAM of experts from across the country is visiting the region this week to study medieval carvings which helped inspire Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland.

The visit, which could lead to detailed long term-records being created for visitors and people around the world via the Internet, will centre on Ripon Cathedral, in North Yorkshire.

It is being led by Dr Richard Hall, consultant archaeologist to the cathedral administration, who describes the carvings as a wonderful piece of medieval art.

The carvings, which will concentrate most attention, are in the choir seats - known as the misericords - which were seats for priests that gave the impression they were standing.

They were completed in 1494, while a Ripon carver, William Bromflet, and two assistants, created a series of creatures on the seating.

The work, including a griffin catching a rabbit while another goes into hiding, is said to represent evil chasing good and the inspiration for Carroll, whose father was a canon at the cathedral, from 1852 to 1868.

The experts brought together by Dr Hall, director of York Archaeological Trust, include Dr Sarah Brown from English Heritage, who specialises in studying medieval church art and architecture; Christa Grossinger, who has written a booklet on the misericords; Hugh Harrison, a recognised craftsman and conservator of wood, along with Charles Tracy, a leading scholar of medieval wood carving.

Dr Hall said: "Ripon's choir stalls are a wonderful piece of medieval art, remarkable for their design, craftsmanship and role in church services over the past 500 years or more. But long-term records of them are rather patchy.

"We hope that by bringing together a range of experts to Ripon, we can devise the best means of maintaining the stalls and of extending knowledge and appreciation of them."

Dr Hall said some medieval carvings had been destroyed by fires, including York Minster's stalls, which were damaged in 1829.

Many more were destroyed during the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Dr Hall said: "Ripon retained its stalls and they are one of the cathedral's great glories."

The experts, who also include Dr Christopher Norton from York University's Medieval Studies Centre, are meeting at the cathedral on Thursday.

Dr Norton is a member of Ripon Cathedral fabric advisory committee, along with Councillor Mick Stanley, director of Ripon Local Studies Centre, who will also attend.

Ripon Cathedral architect Patrick Crawford and Steve Allen, from the Conservation Laboratory at York Archaeological Trust, where he is a wood technologist, are also part of the team.