Prince praises steelworks' mettle

The Prince of Wales in the forge during his visit to Sheffield Forgemasters

The Prince of Wales has returned to a steelworks in Sheffield to see how the company has recovered since he visited it in the wake of last year's floods.

He praised the 800 workers at Sheffield Forgemasters for returning the plant to normal production after the June 2007 flooding - the worst the city has seen.

The company invested more than £16m to recover from the extensive damage at its Brightside Lane site.

Prince Charles helped to lay a stone at a new machine shop under construction.

He told the staff: "I came back really because I know how important Forgemasters is not only to the local economy but also to the national economy, to the national effort.

'Highest quality'

"What you do here, what you produce here is of the highest possible quality and greatly in demand, as I've seen, by customers all over the world who expect and demand the highest quality and the get it from here in Sheffield because you have, I think, all these remarkable skills.

"And it's so encouraging to see just how many apprentices there are coming from different schools in the area who again are providing these quite remarkable skills for which this area has been famous for so many years.

"And the other great thing for me is to see how many families - fathers and sons - are working here.

"It's quite encouraging to know there is a hereditary Forgemasters business."

At the furnace, shift manager Ryan Edmonds said the Prince was extremely interested in the processes and the dramatic backdrop.

He said: "He was asking how he we have coped since the flood and what we've been doing.

"I think it's great he's shown such an interest and wanted to come back.

"It's nice to think somebody is thinking about steelmaking."

Unique collection

Later on Monday, the prince visited two Prince's Regeneration Trust projects in West Yorkshire, which have enabled under-used or redundant buildings to perform a new function and help regenerate the wider community.

In his role as president of the Prince's Trust, Charles toured the Sowerby Bridge Wharf project in Halifax which has seen the conservation and restoration of a unique collection of historic canal buildings.

He then opened Eastbrook Hall, in Bradford, a former Methodist cathedral, which has been restored after a fire in 1996 left it derelict.

Charles finished his series of engagements in Yorkshire with a visit to a community charity in Bingley.

He opened the Cottingley Cornerstone Centre, which has been set up by local people to provide new community facilities for the area.