Yorkshire craft skills to help restore New Orleans

American students on a visit to Fountains Abbey have been learning ancient building skills which they will be able to use on their return to New Orleans.

The young visitors joined other students from a charity set up by the Prince of Wales to see how the Abbey and Studley Royal estate near Ripon, North Yorkshire, had stood the test of time.

The 18 students are among the first graduates of the Prince of Wales's Rebuilding Communities Program, a New Orleans offshoot of the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. The visit taught them about the variety of traditional heritage craft work which they can take home to help repair disaster-struck New Orleans, which was devastated by flooding following a hurricane.

Picture: Simon Hulme