Lindisfarne Gospels' seven year switch

Mar 29 2009 by Paul James, Sunday Sun

ANGER and frustration was the North’s response to this week’s decision to return the Lindisfarne Gospels once every seven years. But it has taken a long walk across a political tightrope to make it even this far. PAUL JAMES asks: Where do we go from here?

BRITISH Library chiefs have finally relented to pressure from the North to return the Lindisfarne Gospels to the region . . . sort of.

The decision to send the historic Gospels back for three months every seven years provoked more anger than it did joy . . . and resentment that they won’t be here permanently.

The move comes four years after a major Sunday Sun campaign launched to bring the Gospels back to the North.

And while that has helped publicise the need for their return, and increased the pressure on the British Library, what has not been is the work behind the scenes to get this far.

Campaigners have vowed to continue the pressure, and the library has said its doors are still open for talks.

Andrew Dixon, head of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, who has been part of the steering group looking to bring the Gospels back, points out it took 15 years for the Sage Gateshead to become a reality.

He said: “Big projects take a long time to realise. The important thing that has happened is that a dialogue has been established.

“The British Library’s original stance was ‘No’ to a loan, and now we’ve got a loan. Their current stance is ‘No’ to a permanent location here but we’ll continue to explore that and the issue will not go away.”

At the meeting this week with representatives from the North East, the British Library board said it “carefully considered, but was unable to accept”, the bid to have the Gospels permanently in the region.

The trustees said they had a statutory duty to “keep the national collection intact”.