A NORTH-EAST construction firm has played an integral part in ensuring historic paintings will be preserved at their best following refurbishment work at a local museum.

The Bowes Museum, near Barnard Castle, has recently secured the loan of paintings owned by composer Sir Tim Rice and The Queen after working on a refurbishment of three galleries with Wharton Construction Ltd, which significantly reduced ulatraviolet light levels.

The museum's conservation manager Jon Old came up with the idea and Wharton Construction, based in Kellaw Road, Darlington, put it into practice with a filter system for the glass in ceilings over the museums galleries, combined with an LED lighting system.

Mr Old said: "The new glass put into the ceiling has a filter system on the outside that takes out all the uv light from the sun, which is the thing that causes your pictures to fade.

"Wharton were a really good company to work with, they were hands on, listened to what we needed and helped us by working out how to do it.

"I had the idea, put it to them and they got the suppliers, we used local companies to do it all."

He added: "It has been a real joy to see the galleries transformed. I still get a wow feeling every time I go in."

Mr Old said the work carried out was important for securing the loan of more paintings at the museum.

He said: "They will only lend the pictures if you can keep light levels to a certain amount."

The museum has recently secured the loan of paintings from the collection of composer Sir Tim Rice as well as 38 works of art by 17th Century Dutch painters, which have been lent by The Queen.

Peter Wharton, managing director of the construction firm founded in 1984, said: "It was a worthwhile, interesting and satisfying job.

"It is an interesting design John Old came up with for filtering the uv light levels from the old Victorian roof.

"When they have pictures on loan they have to meet levels of natural light, he came up with a novel idea.

"We have also increased the area of the walls were pictures can by hung."

It is the latest in a line of projects that has seen Wharton Construction work on some of the regions best known buildings.

Recently the firm completed work extending the historic Barkers Department Store in Northallerton and refurbished Beaumont House in Darlington, the former base of RAC Insurance which had fallen into disrepair, which is now the headquarters of subsea firm Tompkins UK.

The success of the company, employing 50, comes despite recent research by Experian revealing that the North-East had endured the UK's highest rate of collapse for mid-sized construction firms, employing up to 100 people, since the start of the recession in 2007 and a study, by the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Glenigan, found the economic benefit of spending on construction in the North-East fell by 23.4 per cent.

Mr Wharton added: "Work like this is vital for us. We work throughout the North-East and North Yorkshire, but obviously public sector projects have been severely hit and it is that much more difficult all round."