AN ARCHITECT with building in his blood is to work on some of the UK's most famous buildings after securing a prestigious scholarship.

Accrington-born Fergus Devlin Connolly, 26, is one of four talented young professionals from the construction industry chosen by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) for its annual training scheme.

And the former student at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Blackburn, will travel the country in the next six months in the name of building conservation.

Fergus, whose mother, Madeleine Connolly, lives in Padiham and father, Joseph Devlin, lives in Huncoat, went to Blackburn College before moving to Scotland to begin his architecture training at the Glasgow School of Art.

He completed his professional qualifications at London's Metropolitan University last July.

He said: "My dad's a bricklayer and I helped him out on the building sites when I was a child, so I have very much been immersed in construction from a very early age.

"Blackburn has a rich heritage of old industrial buildings just begging for new uses to bring them back into the fabric of society.

"They are a testament to history and it's great that some of them have been turned into things like nightclubs."

For the next six months, the SPAB scholars, who are currently repairing the heavily-corroded leadwork on the roof of London's Westminster Abbey, will travel the length and breadth of the British Isles.

And they will work with architects and craftsmen on historic sites, including St Paul's Cathedral in London and Provender House in Kent, which was owned by Russian royal family, the Romanovs.

Fergus was approached by the SPAB after being nominated as stand-out architecture student of 2007 by the magazine Building Design and for his drawings from recent work on St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The students are encouraged to get their hands dirty and have already mixed their own mortar before pointing and laying a stone wall.

They will learn the range of conservative and restorative techniques used in the field, from spraying high-tech chemicals over ancient stone surfaces to cleaning walls with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water.

"I'm working on some wonderful old churches and cathedrals and I'm getting to visit parts of Britain I've never seen and never would have thought I'd see," said Fergus.

"It makes me sound like a real geek but it's amazing to be able to see the history of settlement in the country."

As part of the scheme, the scholars will sit on a panel that decides whether applications to make changes to listed buildings get the go-ahead, and will spend their final three months restoring an English country house in need of renovation.

"I'm going to be a guest of the Lord and Lady of the Manor, it's crazy," he said.