Blue Peter winner inspires Minster fundraising badge

The winner of a children's TV competition to help rebuild York Minster after a devastating fire has shared her delight that her design is still continuing to help 40 years on.

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

On the 40th anniversary of the fire, her design has now been turned into a pin badge to raise funds for ongoing conservation and restoration work at the Minster.

The fire at York Minster on 9 July, 1984, was started when the cathedral was struck by lightning and resulted in more than £2.25m 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 it meant for the building."

Her design for a boss - a decorative join between ceiling beams - was among 32,000 entries sent into Blue Peter and she was one of just six winners chosen.

Her design was partly inspired by the Minster's iconic Rose Window which was badly damaged during the fire.

As part of her prize, 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 busy, noisy and exciting. I even got to have lunch with John Craven in the BBC canteen," she said.

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

"That was a really special day," said Ms Edwards.

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

"It's so nice that a part of me is always going to be part of the Minster," she said, proudly wearing the new pin-badge on one side of her dress and her much-coveted Blue Peter badge on the other.

She said: “I consider myself very lucky to still be involved with this great building, and to have played a small part alongside the amazingly talented craftspeople who brought the Minster back to life."

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

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

"They share a very special relationship with the Minster, both with its history and its future.”

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].