'A LITTLE bit of Furness' will be in the heart of Westminster as the renovation of a building used for MP's offices will use Burlington Stone.

Simon Fell, rhe MP for Barrow and Furness, said his first office in Westminster was in Norman Shaw North, an ageing Grade-I listed building formerly used as the previous Scotland Yard, but is now used as offices for politicians. 

It is the only Grade-I listed building other than the palace on the Parliamentary estate. 

Mr Fell said: "My first office in Westminster - after a period of squatting in communal offices with fellow new MPs - was in Norman Shaw North, a faded beauty of a building across the road from the Houses of Parliament suffering from neglect, damp, leaks, and a mouse infestation.

"Not long after moving in, the building was closed for refurbishment and MPs, our teams, and House staff were dispersed elsewhere.

"For many months now, the building has been shrouded, with works being undertaken to identify what was broken, and to fix it, modernise in part, and turn it in back into a viable office space for some of the thousands of people who work in Parliament."

"The original slates on Norman Shaw North’s roof were extracted from the Burlington Quarry in Kirkby-in-Furness in the late 1880s. Their famous colour - Westmorland Green - remained, but sadly many of those tiles had begun to show severe rot and decay.

"So I was delighted to visit the building site at NSN today and learn that the new roof will come from the exact same source - with Burlington Stone’s Westmorland Green slate once again on the roof. A lovely link to the building’s past, and a little bit of Furness in the heart of Westminster."

Burlington Stone is owned by Holker Group and supplies construction projects across the globe. 

The stone has been quarried in the Lake District for over 400 years.