REPLICAS of the Lindisfarne Gospels are to go on show in the North-East, the home region of the original manuscript, later this month.

Expensively produced facsimile copies of the gospels will be presented to both Dur-ham Cathedral and the Heritage Centre at Lindisfarne, Northumberland, where they were written by monks at the early medieval priory.

Although campaigners still want the original book to be returned permanently to the North-East from its home at the British Library, the expertly copied facsimile versions are seen as an excellent second best.

The British Library commissioned the accurate copies, completed using new photographic techniques, by Faksimile Verlag, in Lucerne, Switzerland.

A weekend celebration will be staged to highlight the production of the replicas and the original work, believed to have been the result of hours of skilled craftsmanship by the careful hand of scribe Eadfrith and fellow monks on Lindisfarne in the late 7th and early 8th Centuries.

The gospels were produced in memory of St Cuthbert, begun 11 years after his death on Lindisfarne in 687AD, and Durham Cathedral was built 400 years later to house his shrine permanently.

But the lavishly-bound manuscripts were removed from the cathedral on the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537.

Lord Eatwell, the chairman of the British Library, will present the facsimile copy to the Dean of Durham, the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove, at a thanksgiving and dedication service at the cathedral on Friday, May 16, at 2.30pm.

The service will feature a "gospel procession" and readings from the manuscript in the original Latin, plus old and modern English.

Most areas of the cathedral are open to the public over the following two days to allow the public to view the replica and the other treasures, between 10am and 4pm on Saturday, May 17, and 12.30pm to 4pm on Sunday, May 18.

Cathedral chapter steward Anne Heywood said the presentation of the gospels replica was "a gift to all the people of the North-East".

She said: "They have taken the most modern technology of the day to create this replica of a centuries-old book and it's a chance to give thanks for that."