DOWN but not out. That's the reaction of leading campaigner Tylden Reed after the Archbishop’s Palace in Charing, near Ashford, failed in its attempt to win the £3m final of the BBC2 Restoration show.

The site was one of eight crumbling buildings short-listed across Great Britain for viewers to vote for what they considered worthy of saving the most in a telephone poll and the cash went to restore an Old Grammar School in Birmingham.

Mr Reed, like many others in the community, put his life and business as the village clockmaker on hold to spearhead the bid for victory.

He said: “The battle to save our historic collection of buildings and convert them to community use for the people of Kent to use is far from over. We did our very best and we will fight on. It will be restored but it will just take a little longer because we failed to come home with the cheque.”

He led a coach load of Tudor costumed supporters that spent nine hours during rehearsals and the live filming of the final programme at Hampton Court Palace on Sunday.

He stressed: “We spent so much time and effort in doing our very best and ask the Kentish Express to thank everybody that supported us with both telephone votes and money to mount the campaign.

“I know we came so near. Although we were not in the final three there was only a 10 per cent difference in the number of votes pledged for the winner and the eighth placed project.”

The village spent more than £12,000 promoting the cause with banners, posters and postcards distributed across Kent.

Mr Reed also told KM-fm's Antony Masters that the battle was far from over...