Finalists for the English Heritage Angel Awards Announced

According to the Daily Telegraph, the 16 local groups who have been chosen to go forward to the finals of the English Heritage Angel Awards were announced. English Heritage experts met to select the 16 finalists out of over 200 applications in the four main categories: Best Rescue of a Place of Worship, Best Rescue of an Industrial Building or Site, Best Rescue of Any Other Caterogies on the Heritage at Risk Register, Best Craftsmanship Employed on a Heritage Rescue. The judging panel, which includes Andrew, Simon Thurley, Melvyn Bragg, Charles Moore, Bettany Hughes and the Right Revd Richard Chartres, will decide on the winners. The winners will then be announced at the star-studded Angel Awards ceremony on 31 October at the Palace Theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber is set to chair this year's English Heritage's Angel Awards.

The nominees are as follows:

Best craftmanship employed on a heritage rescue
Guestern Hall, Worcester - A full-scale rescue of Guestern Hall, Worcester, a 14th century guest house.

Smythe Barn, Westenhanger, Kent- Restoring Tudor-age Smythe Barn, Kent, which survived the Great Storm of 1987 proved to be an enormous oak jigsaw.

Tyntesfield Orangery, Somerset- The glasshouse at Tyntesfield Abbey is now a classroom for a new generation of craftsmen.

Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire - Unfinished Gothic masterpiece Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire is now a school for trainee craftsmen.

Best rescue of an industrial building or site
Brunel Goods Shed, Gloucestershire- Brunel's Goods Shed, Gloucestershire, will become a venue for music and dance.

Bestwood Colliery Winding Engine, Nottinghamshire- The winding engine at Bestwood Colliery, Nottinghamshire, helped make it the most productive mine in the world.

North Leverton Windmill, Nottinghamshire- North Leverton Windmill, Nottinghamshire, is still grinding corn after almost two centuries.

Pleasley Colliery, Nottinghamshire- Pleasley Colliery, Nottinghamshire, was immaculately-restored by local volunteers.

Best rescue or repair of a place of worship
Former Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Leeds- St Margaret of Antioch in inner-city Leeds is once again a focus for the community.

The Good Shepherd Church, Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire- The Good Shepherd Church, Woodthorpe, showed the best of 1960s design - and the worst of its construction techniques.

St James Priory, Bristol- Built in 1170 this building has been serving Bristolians for more than 800 years.

St Peter's Church, Shackerstone, Leicestershire- Villagers raised £5,000 each to save St Peter's Church, Shackerstone, where the floors had rotted and the organ was held together with elastic bands.

Best rescue of any other entry on the Heritage at Risk Register
Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol- Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol is the resting place of 300,000 people but was overgrown with thorns.

The Dome Cinema, Worthing- The projectors are once again whirring at The Dome Cinema, Worthing.

The Ilam Cross, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire- The Ilam Cross, near Ashbourne, was by a local man to remember his wife.

The Church of St Stephen, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead- The vandals are gone and weddings have returned to the 'mighty church' of St Stephen, Hampstead.

Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as "the most commercially successful composer in history." Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.

He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.

Several of his songs, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.