TRADESMEN and labourers have returned to the religious retreat centre they helped create almost 50 years ago.

Back in the 1960s, an army of volunteers from Consett helped convert a stable block at Minsteracres in Northumberland into a retreat centre which has since been used by thousands of visitors.

Many of them returned to Minsteracres recently for an open day to launch its plans for a new £500,000 refurbishment.

The centre plans to install a lift, add extra bathrooms and carry out further modernisation to cater for the growing numbers of people who visit every year.

Half a century ago, minibuses brought volunteers from St Patrick’s Church in Consett after Sunday Mass, many of the men coming straight from their night shift at the town’s steelworks, often accompanied by their teenage sons.

Frank McDonald, 68, from Shotley Bridge, was inspired to become a joiner after helping his uncle on the conversion.

He said: "I worked on it right through from the beginning to the end.

“The labourers were mainly people from the Consett area, many from the building industry as well as steelworks - bricklayers, pipe fitters, painters and decorators, general workmen”.

Mark McNally from Ebchester said: “My dad Jack McNally worked in the steel works as a labourer.

“If he worked nightshift he finished at 6am. There was usually a mini bus to pick up the men and bring them back.

“The priests gave them breakfast and they worked for three or four hours and then had to get back to get some sleep before they started their next shifts.

“The steel works were a great source of labour. Working here was an extension of their faith for the men”.

Nuala O’Brien, communications manager at Minsteracres, said: “It was great to meet some of the people who helped with the original conversion back in the 60s.

“We’re trying to collect their stories and pictures and contrast what they did back then to what we’re doing now”.