THE future of priceless arts and literary treasures surrounding poet William Wordsworth and members of the British Romanticism movement looks set to be secured in Grasmere with the announcement of a £500,000 grant.

Wordsworth Trust staff are celebrating as the Jerwood Foundation's donation is not only essential to help create a state-of-the-art collections centre, but could also be the key to triggering a further £1.8 million needed for the scheme from the National Lottery.

The project would consolidate the trust's position as the country's leading centre of British Romanticism at the Dove Cottage site, said director Robert Woof.

It would allow greater public access to more than 50,000 precious manuscripts, paintings, books and memorabilia, secure the jobs of the 30 or so staff and could mean some of those temporary jobs are made permanent.

Building work in a staff car park about 60 yards north of Dove Cottage could start early next year, if lottery funding is made available.

An announcement on that is expected later this year.

Based around the poet's former Grasmere home, the trust is already a mecca for education and research for students and general readers of English poetry worldwide, offering annual courses and training opportunities, as well as holding internationally-acclaimed exhibitions.

The collection has grown by a factor of four in the last 25 years and, with acquisitions still being made, the need to re-house and conserve has become pressing.

The new Jerwood Collections Centre will offer climate-controlled rooms, ample storage space and improved facilities for research and conservation.

"It's about improving standards," said Dr Woof, who added it was the first time there would be disabled access to the treasures.

"At the moment we have great difficulty in accommodating four researchers and objects, stored at a variety of venues, have to be unpacked and packed up."

A lot of time has been spent restoring and conserving objects so they will be useable by the time the new building is in place.

Work is also under way preparing the first part of the collection to be put on a web site designed to make an entire archive accessible via the Internet.

Dr Woof was keen to stress the trust was not just about dead poets, pointing to a recent series of 24 major readings by 32 contemporary readers.

Leading poet Tony Harrison is due next week.

"There is a national appetite for looking at the Romantic period, which was a tremendous outburst of energy for the English.

It is part of our past that should encourage us in our future," he said.

The vision was for the trust to become an interface of art and writing from where authors could launch their careers and people could study in quiet contemplation.

"At the core of it all is the collection, but a new centre would enable us to use it dynamically to create more energy.

It will be like putting a new battery in place," said Dr Woof.

Plans for the building attracted objections from some residents and the Friends of the Lake District, but the scheme was won on appeal.

This week, Ian Brodie, of the Friends of the Lake District said: "We accept the very hard work done and the value of the trust to the national park.

We hope the end result is acceptable."

Chief executive of Cumbria Tourist Board Chris Collier said: "This will have spin-offs for the area as a whole and is exactly the kind of development we would support as long as it is done sympathetically."

The London-based Jerwood Foundation was set up after the death of John Jerwood, who made his fortune from cultured pearls.

Culture Secretary Chris Smith was at Grasmere with Jerwood chief executive Roane Dods for the grant announcement.

l A grant of £89,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund has helped the trust to buy a manuscript containing extensively-revised drafts of 23 sonnets by Wordsworth, which were afterwards published in Ecclesiastical Sketches in 1822.