IMPORTANT parts of Westmorland's heritage could soon be back in their rightful place, thanks to Gazette readers.

Last summer thousands of readers backed this newspaper's Hand Back Our Heritage campaign for the return of the historically-important K Shoes collection, which chronicles 150 years of shoemaking in the area.

The collection was taken from Kendal by Clarks after the Somerset-based footwear giant bought out the famous K Shoes company, but Clarks caved in to public pressure in July and agreed in principle to return important parts of the collections.

The company has been discussing the return of archives and key artefacts with members of the Somervell family, whose ancestors founded the K Shoes company in 1842.

Cumbria County Archives service has had talks with Clarks about the extensive K Shoes document archives, which include paperwork from the earliest days of the company and war records of employees.

Brian Hough at Cumbria County Council, said: "Things are progressing - we are talking about terms, overall management and about how they are to be looked after.

We talked to Clarks just before Christmas and will be in touch again soon.

But it is likely that it will be a month or two rather than a week or two before anything happens."

Clarks also agreed in principle to return to Kendal significant items from the K Shoes artefacts collection, which includes medals awarded for the company's display at the Crystal Palace International Exhibition in 1862, as well as shoes, shoemaking tools and other historic objects.

A possible home for some of the artefacts emerged at the K Village at Netherfield in Kendal.

K Village, now owned by London-based company MEPC, said it wanted to expand its operation and submitted plans for the redevelopment of part of the site - it hopes to include a purpose-built area for public displays and exhibitions of K Shoes' history.

Mandy Dixon, marketing and tourism manager at K Village, said: "We are still very interested in showing more of the collections.

"We have planning permission and we have plans but there is still a lot of detail to sort out.

We are still some way off," she said.

Meanwhile John Keary, speaking for Clarks, said the company had moved its collections, including the K Shoes material, to new premises and employees were unpacking and making inventories.

He said workers were looking out for specific items suggested by the Somervell family which might be used to refresh the existing public display at K Village.

Mr Keary assured Westmorland Gazette readers that Clarks would honour its plan to return significant parts of the collection to its rightful home in Kendal as long as conditions for the care of the material could be met.

"It is going to be a slow process," he said.

"But we will get their in the end."