£500,000 grant to set up new museum for romantic works

Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, yesterday indulged one of his private passions when he went to the Lake District to announce a £500,000 grant to the Wordsworth Trust.

Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, yesterday indulged one of his private passions when he went to the Lake District to announce a £500,000 grant to the Wordsworth Trust.

Mr Smith, who studied Wordsworth as part of his PhD,said he was particularly pleased that the grant, from the Jerwood Foundation, would help the trust build a museum to house its increasingly large collection of poetry.

The Wordsworth Trust, Centre for British Romanticism, holds 50,000 manuscripts, paintings, books and memorabilia relating to the great British poets. The trust, based in Grasmere, Cumbria, with Wordsworth's home, Dove Cottage, at its centre, has become an important resource for students and poetry-lovers all over the world.

In the past 20 years the collection has grown fourfold and, with acquisitions still being made, the need to rehouse and conserve has become pressing, said a trust spokesman. "We have 90 per cent of everything Wordsworth ever did as well as a large amount of work by the other Romantic poets, including Coleridge, Byron and Shelley ... The new building will allow us to spread out a bit more and display things better."

The spokesman added that the trust was waiting for news of an application for lottery money, which would be added to the Jerwood grant and enable building to start next year.

The Jerwood Collections Centre will be built next to the present museum, where there are exhibition display rooms, a small library and study facilities. It will be a three-storey barn-style construction blending with the existing buildings. It will be roofed and clad in Lake District slate. Inside will be climate-controlled rooms, storage space and improved facilities for conservation and research.

The trust is also making the entire archive accessible via the internet.

Alan Grieve, the chairman of the Jerwood Foundation, said he was delighted that the foundation had been able to assist the Wordsworth Trust.