PART of Nelson will be in the national spotlight this summer after the BBC spent a day filming for a follow-up to last year's successful Restoration series.

Cameras zoomed in on Whitefield, which was earmarked for demolition as phase one of council clearance proposals which were overturned last September after two public inquiries.

Now the houses, the residents and the council will be part of a series called Restoration Nation, which looks at issues involved in heritage sites and whether they can, or should be, restored.

The series will be screened over the summer and the footage from Whitefield will be included in an hour-long special on the north of England alongside mills in Ancoats, a transporter bridge in Warrington and several sites in the north east.

Whitefield was chosen because of the link between the homes and the cotton industry and because people in the area had fought and won the battle to stop their homes being demolished.

The homes are seen as being significant because Nelson is the only town in Lancashire which developed completely from agricultural land to a town during the industrial revolution. Most other towns developed from former historic centres.

The area also remains relatively unchanged from when it was originally built and shows clearly the development in housing styles and regulations.

Programme producer Dan Farthing said: "We are interested in how people power has saved this unique area and this feeds into the Restoration series about people fighting to save buildings.

"In this series we are covering restoration issues and, in particular, we are looking at how some former industrial properties have fallen into disrepair.

"We have looked at mills and then, in Whitefield, we have the mill housing. The reason it was originally built has gone, so what does the future hold?"

Sylvia Wilson, secretary of Whitefield Conservation Action Group, was interviewed by the crew.

She said: "It's good that the significance of these homes is being highlighted in a documentary such as this.

"We all feel that we just need to get on with it now. We want to see some work done on the houses."