York Minster: Blue Peter Award winner inspires fundraising badge

The winner of a children’s TV competition to help rebuild York Minster after a devastating fire has spoken of her joy that her project is still helping 40 years later.

Laura Edwards was 10 years old when she won a Blue Peter competition to create a decorative ceiling bossage for the fire-ravaged south transept.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the fire, his drawing was made into a badge to raise funds for ongoing conservation and restoration work at the Minster.

The York Minster fire on 9 July 1974 was started when the cathedral was struck by lightning and caused more than £2.25 million of damage.

Ms Edwards, from York, said she remembered seeing pictures of the fire as a child, telling BBC Radio York: “My whole family was worried about what this meant for the building.

Her bossage project – a decorative junction between ceiling beams – was among 32,000 entries sent to Blue Peter and she was one of six winners chosen.

Its design is partly inspired by the cathedral’s iconic rose window, which was badly damaged in the fire.

As part of her award, Ms Edwards was invited to BBC Television Centre in London to film with Blue Peter presenters Janet Ellis, Peter Duncan and Simon Groom.

“It was quite strange and I remember Blue Peter being very lively, noisy and exciting. I even had the opportunity to have lunch with John Craven in the BBC canteen,” she said.

She kept a scrapbook to document her experience of winning the competition, including the moment she showed her designed pattern to the Queen Mother during a visit to the Minster in 1987.

“It was a really special day,” Ms Edwards said.

Its design has now inspired a special badge, which will be sold in the Minster shop to raise funds for the building.

“It’s so nice that a part of me will always be part of the Minster,” she said, proudly wearing the new badge on one side of her dress and her coveted Blue Peter badge on the other.

She said: “I consider myself very lucky to still be involved in this great building and to have played a small part alongside the incredibly talented craftsmen who have brought the cathedral back to life.”

Ms Edwards will later attend a special memorial service to mark the anniversary.

Rosalind Kelly, York Minster’s marketing manager, said: “It’s wonderful that Laura and others involved in the rebuilding of this beautiful but fragile cathedral are joining us.”

“They have a very special relationship with the cathedral, both with its history and with its future.”