TREASURED National Trust documents have been taken from Swindon to a special archive centre in Chippenham.

The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre was opened last year and is home to thousands of valuable documents from Swindon's history.

Now the Swindon-based National Trust has also sent a number of documents to the new centre for storage and preservation.

Paperwork sent includes documents linked to the mysterious Ferguson Gang, whose members donated bags of silver to the National Trust during the 1930s and 1940s.

It is thought that the gang's membership was largely female and that it had some links to artistic and literary groups in Cornwall, Devon and possibly the Isle of Wight.

There are also papers from William Morris, right, and hundreds of letters from children's storyteller Beatrix Potter.

Moving the documents to the new state-of-the-art climate controlled storage centre will also make them more accessible to everyone who wants to find out more about the National Trust.

Iain Shaw, head of records and archives for The National Trust, said: "For the first time in the Trust's history it offers the opportunity to bring the Trust's Organisational Memory under one roof."

For more information about the history centre visit http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/history-centre.htm