A FORGOTTEN statue of one of the most important figures in early North-East Christianity has found a new home.

The wooden sculpture of St Cuthbert had lain undisturbed in a warehouse for nearly a decade.

Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, it has been restored by Fenwick Lawson, the Durham artist who created it in 1983.

Mr Lawson carved the statue from an elm that used to stand outside Durham Cathedral, which became diseased and had to be felled.

The piece stood in the cathedral cloisters until 1995, when it was bought by the Northern Rock Foundation to use as a mould for a bronze casting, which stands in Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island.

Dennis Jones, chairman of Durham Heritage Centre, said: "I asked Fenwick what had happened to it and decided to write to Northern Rock," he said. "They agreed to send it back for us to put in the museum."

The statue will take pride of place in a walled garden built in the former churchyard, thanks to a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Cuthbert was prior on Holy Island and the Lindisfarne Gospels were dedicated to him.

"It is quite fitting that we have a bronze statue of Cuthbert at Lindisfarne, where he lived and this one in Durham, his final resting place," said Mr Jones.