A CASH-STRAPPED Lakeland treasure has been thrown a lifeline following a campaign in The Westmorland Gazette.

Blackburn College has pro-mised a no-strings-attached £10,000 to the Save the Armitt campaign, which will enable the Ambleside museum and library to re-open at Easter.

The five-figure sum ach-ieves the Gazette’s campaign target but will only bridge the funding gap while the trust continues with its appeal to put the reference library and museum on a firmer financial footing and secure its future.

College principal and chief executive Ian Clinton said that as a South Lakeland resident and reader of The Westmorland Gazette he was concerned to learn about the difficulties that the Armitt was facing.

But the Armitt’s appeal for further donations goes on.

Armitt Trust chairman Peter Jackson was delighted with the news and grateful to the Gazette for its help.

Mr Jackson said: “This is great news so early in the Gazette campaign and will be a real boost for the appeal.

“I feel confident that this donation, together with other generous gifts from the public now beginning to arrive, will give the trust confidence to re-open the Armitt. But we continue to need support for the appeal to help to build a secure future.”

Mr Clinton, who lives near Kendal, said: “I have visited the Armitt on a number of occasions and have been greatly impressed with the work a small group of committed people continue to achieve despite setbacks.

“As an educationalist, I believe it is essential that such a valuable collection as housed at the Armitt remains together and in Cumbria.”

Mr Clinton said it was important to stress that no taxpayers’ money was being used to fund the offer.

He pointed out that the donation was from the college’s commercial and international contracts that generate more than £1million each year.

Within the Armitt’s purpose-built walls are 10,000 books and more than 25,000 photographs and glass slides, including images by J W Brunskell, Herbert Bell, and the Abraham Brothers.

Works by leading 20th Century German artist Kurt Schwitters are featured, and in 1943 Beatrix Potter bequeathed her collection of more than 450 fungi, natural history and archaeology watercolours to the Armitt, and its library includes some of the tomes of John Ruskin.

The charitable trust has been dogged by money problems for several years and Mr Jackson said that if the short-term target had not been reached by March 19 then the temporary closure – due to floods – would become permanent and the collection would have been broken up and dispersed.

Blackburn College is the second largest provider of university education in a further education college in the UK with more than 3,000 FE students. It has a Beacon Award for its excellence in teaching and learning.

Students take degrees in English lierature, arts and photography and attend college from across the globe.