Quarry bid is Restoration success

Pen yr Orsedd would be used as a training facility

Viewers have backed plans to turn a quarry workshops into a heritage engineering workshop in Wales' heat of the BBC's Restoration Village series.

Pen yr Orsedd in Nantlle, Gwynedd beat off competition from Prichard-Jones Institute on Anglesey and Pembrey Court Farm in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire.

The result was officially announced during Friday's Restoration programme.

Pen yr Orsedd will join eight finalists in the live UK final on 17 September.

"I never imagined we would get such a result - a small village like us where only 200 people live," said Les Jones, organiser of the Pen yr Orsedd supporters group.

"This really is the start of things to come. This will bring a new life to not just the village but to the Nantlle valley," he added.

The Grade II-listed slate quarry buildings in Nantlle include workshops, offices, hospital and industrial buildings. Four hundred and fifty men worked in the quarry, which finally closed in 1997.

Les Jones (with wife Vera) said the whole area would benefit

The walls and roofs are in place but the interiors of the buildings need total renovation in order to create a training and workshop centre for the repair, replication and manufacture of heritage engineering items.

This year the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has set aside £1.9 million for the Restoration fund to help restore the winners.

Jennifer Stewart, HLF's manager for Wales said: "The Pen yr Orsedd quarry workshops is a heritage star at the very heart of the community and we're delighted it has gone through to the final."