LANCASHIRE County Council has been given lottery funding to help preserve its historic records.

The council has used the Heritage Lottery cash to take on a trainee who will care for its birth, death and marriage certificates, church documents, land records and industrial records - some of going back to the Middle Ages.

The documents are in danger of crumbling unless they receive constant expert care.

As the staff in charge of the documents are approaching retirement age, there is a danger of the skills being lost, so Zoe Stewart has been recruited by the Institute of Conservation.

Her 12 month internship will be spent in the record office and county museums.

Zoe, from Earby, said: "The trouble is the records will deter-iorate unless cared for at the correct temperature and humidity.

"Some of the oldest documents already need repairing - and that is a skill we should never lose.

"Stored and restored properly, these documents will last for many hundreds of years more."