CRUCIAL repairs to a "millrace" running through a Barnoldswick beauty spot have been completed, restoring it to an important wildlife habitat.

The millrace, a man made channel for a stream, runs through Valley Gardens, but has been dry for three years due to vandalism and disrepair. Now it has been restored by trainees working for Pendle Environmental Action, an organisation that takes young unemployed people and teaches them new skills.

Barnoldswick's Rob Januszewski is a supervisor with the group and serves on the Valley Gardens Working Group, an organisation formed to redevelop the site as a natural history resource - a kind of outdoor classroom - for the town's schoolchildren.

Rob explained: "The millrace was in a bad state. A lot of the stone flags that formed the walls of the channel had been smashed or stolen and it wasn't holding water. It was also heavily silted and completely blocked in some places.

"We wanted to get water flowing through it again for the frogs to spawn and make a habitat for other wildlife."

But Rob said it proved to be a bigger job than first envisaged.

"We dug out 10 to 15 tons of silt, rubbish and other debris, only to find that about 95 per cent of the bed had perished and wouldn't hold water. We set to and pointed the existing flags and cut new ones to replace those that were missing.

"We then relaid the concrete on the bed and pointed and sealed it all. We've also included things like planting pockets, different depth levels and ridges on the bed to create ripples in the water, all to encourage wildlife."

Rob continued: "When we started the work a lot of people came to look and some said it would never see water again, it was in such a poor state. But there's water flowing through it now and hopefully by spring, when all the excess concrete and so on has washed out, we'll be able to stock it with pond plants and get some wildlife back in it. We've already had one frog coming for a look."

Most of all, Rob praised the efforts of the young trainees, who have worked hard in difficult conditions to get the job done.

Pendle Environmental Action takes unemployed people aged 16 to 24 and teaches them environmental skills, working towards National Vocational Qualifications.

"Some of these youngsters have problems and some are on the jobs scrapheap before they've ever had a job, but if someone gives them a chance it's amazing what they can produce," said Rob.

Around 10 trainees have worked on the project, which has taken around three weeks to complete.

They also assessed the old dam behind Briggs and Duxbury's, which feeds the millrace.

According to Rob the dam's sluice gate is in need of repair, but it has been blocked up as a temporary measure to raise the dam to the level needed to feed the millrace.

Plans are in hand to develop a "Stream and Steam" heritage trail through Barnoldswick, following the stream that runs through the town and highlighting how it was used by the town's textile industry.

The section through Valley Gardens would form an important part of that project.