Lord Bragg adds his weight to campaign

Date: 2001-01-26, Publication: The Journal

Broadcaster Lord Melvyn Bragg is the latest high-profile personality to pledge his support for the return North of the Lindisfarne Gospels, and will join a delegation to culture minister Chris Smith. The Cumbrian-born Labour peer will join the Bishop of Durham Rt Rev Michael Turnbull, Fraser Kemp MP, Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell, Northumbrian Association chairman Richard Berg Rust, Northumbria Tourist Board chief executive Peter Sloyan and Journal Editor Ged Henderson in trying to persuade Mr Smith to sanction the Gospels return North, during a meeting scheduled for March. Mr Berg Rust said: "We are delighted that Lord Bragg has agreed to join our delegation and pledge his support to the Northumbrian Association campaign to return the Gospels to their rightful place. "He is widely respected in the arts world and well known for his affinity with the North of England.

"The campaign is growing in momentum all the time." Probably best known for hosting ITV's flagship arts programme The South Bank Show, Lord Bragg is also a prolific author and has been writing fiction for more than 40 years. His critically acclaimed work includes Credo, a historical novel set in the Golden Age of Northumbria. The Gospels have now been returned to the British Library in Euston Road, London, after a hugely successful display at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, where more than 180,000 people saw the manuscript in three months.

But ironically the success of the "loan" has added weight to the campaign for the permanent return North of the priceless 7th century artifacts, probably to Durham Cathedral, from which they were plundered by Henry V111 in 1537. Campaigners argue that the North is the rightful place for the Gospels, as a religious manuscript its most appropriate home should be a place of worship such as Durham Cathedral, and that the economic and cultural benefits of their return would be immense to the region.

The manuscript was written and illustrated in honour of the North's patron saint, Cuthbert, on Lindisfarne off the Northumberland coast in the late 7th century when Northumbria was the centre of Christian culture in Britain.

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