Woodkirk Stone of Morley near Leeds, West Yorkshire, have featured on the Channel 4 TV programme Grand Designs in the restoration of Hellifield Peel in North Yorkshire.

The fine grained sandstone from Britannia Quarry was approved by English Heritage for use in the restoration project by architect and Peel owner Francis Shaw of the Brewster Bye practice in Leeds.

Francis first saw the castle when he was 14. It stirred a passion in him that was to be the saving grace of this historic building because the Peel was on the verge of being just a pile of rubble when he bought it.

Some historians had already written the 14th century structure off. One even said it had already been demolished when Francis and his wife, Karen, bought it in 2004.

They had a dream that this castle would be their home and set about making it so in front of the TV cameras.

Not only did the project need planning and listed building consent for the restoration to proceed, it also needed Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent, described by Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs as being "not for whimps – the granddaddy of all building consents."

Following an extensive search for the right stone, it became clear that the Woodkirk was the best possible match.

During the course of the project nearly 300 tonnes of the Yorkshire sandstone were supplied by Woodkirk and used to repair and consolidate the main structure, renovate crennelations and create new internal arches, fireplaces, finely carved corbels and other decoration.

The project's head stonemason, Jason Henfrey, found using the Woodkirk stone a joy. He said it was "uniform in texture and grain, which means that it carves exceedingly well and looks great".

Massive fireplaces were created to give a feeling of solidity and completeness to the interior of what has now become one of the few buildings to be removed from the English Heritage 'at risk' register and returned to use.