Tradesmen given top heritage restoration award

The group's work on the Saxon church in Alma Vii, Transylvania, Romania, has seen a boost in tourism

A group of tradesmen have won Europe's most prestigious award for conservation, after helping to repair a fortified church in Romania.

The group, from Ludlow, Shropshire, were invited to work on the 14th Century Saxon church in Alma Vii, Transylvania, which started to fall apart more than a decade ago.

They were subsequently given the Europa Nostra award for heritage restoration.

"We’re all very proud to have been part of the team that has saved a unique piece of Romanian cultural heritage," said Colin Richards, one of the team.

"Badgers had been eroding the walls underneath, undermining the structure, we’ve had 10 aggressive winters eroding the capping on the tops of the walls," he added.

"What we were asked to do was to stabilise the building to buy time until European funds could be made available for the major restorations."

Team member Colin Richards said he was very proud to have been part of the project

Repairs also included repairing roof structures, cracks in walls, and re-binding stones and bricks.

The church sacristy, a room where vestments and other church furnishings were kept, was saved from collapse.

"The project has restored the cultural landscape of this small village, and included community engagement to the highest level, thus instilling a sense of responsibility for this heritage”, the awards jury said.

Their next project is to rebuild a section of Ludlow's town walls

The tradesmen will now turn their attention to a project in their home town of Ludlow, to repair part of the town walls.

A section collapsed 11 years ago, and had not been rebuilt.

"It is sad to see our town walls like this, because Ludlow is quite a tourist attraction for all over the country, all over Europe," said carpenter Darren Griffiths.

"We’ve got lots of historic buildings in this country, so we’ve got to sort of carry on rebuilding these, as well as working all over the world and mainly in Romania," added stonemason Tom Holder.