THE work of acclaimed artist Norman Cornish is coming home.

A permanent exhibition of the late pitman painter’s work will be created in his home town Spennymoor, in County Durham.

Spennymoor Town Council this week agreed to dedicate part of The Bob Abley Gallery at Spennymoor Town Hall to Mr Cornish, who died last August aged 94.

It will be renamed The Norman Cornish Room early next year and feature pieces already owned by the council and others from the family’s collection, some of which will be for sale.

The council has been planning a tribute to Mr Cornish - a coalminer for 33 years before his pictures of everyday life in the North earned him renown - for months.

But its decision was well timed as earlier this summer the University of Northumbria, in Newcastle, closed its gallery and confirmed future culture plans will not include Mr Cornish’s work despite a relationship going back to 1989.

Pieces from the university have been relocated and some will feature in the town hall exhibition, along with sketch books and rare television footage from the 1950s and 60s.

Mr Cornish’s family thanked the university for providing a "first class facility" for exhibits and former gallery director Mara-Helen Wood and her colleagues for their advice, expertise and promotion across the UK and abroad.

Son John Cornish said: “It is fantastic that his work is going back to Spennymoor Town Hall, it is a very fitting place for it.

“It is part of developing dad’s legacy.”

He said the venue is ideal as it is accessible and in the same building as Durham Mining Museum.

The town hall exhibition could become the starting point for a proposed Norman Cornish Trail, highlighting many of his iconic pieces at their original locations, which Durham County Council is looking to create.

It is hoped that the trail would help residents develop a sense of identity with their heritage and attract visitors to the area, as The Lowry Trail in Berwick has.

Colin Ranson, the council’s facilities manager, said: “He is the most iconic of pitmen painters and from here in Spennymoor so it is important for the council to recognise that.

“The council is passionate about art in Spennymoor from young and emerging talents to professionals like Norman Cornish.

“The exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to show his work on a daily basis and will be great for aspiring artists, there will continue to be lots of space for them in the gallery and it will be seen by so many more people as we’re sure visitor numbers will rise.”