A GROUP aimed at preserving locomotives has found a new home in the Birthplace of the Railways.

After a long search, the North-East Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG) has been presented with the lease for the Hopetown Carriage Works, in Darlington.

Dr Stuart Nichols, heritage manager for Darlington, handed the lease to NELPG chairman John Hunt to end several years of looking for a new home.

The site is next to the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum, the centrepiece of the town's rail heritage.

All of the buildings on the site are now listed and house Locomotion, George Stephenson's famed engine, which pulled the first passenger train which ran on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in 1825.

Hopetown Carriage Works is probably the oldest works of its type in existence.

There, NELPG will continue its work restoring North-East-built engines, and be a boost to a five-year development plan and Heritage Lottery bid for the site.

It is hoped this will lead to an application to develop the area's railway heritage as a World Heritage Site.

The arrival of NELPG in Darlington is also a boost to The Northern Echo's Treasuring Our Railway Heritage campaign, which was launched last year, in a bid to highlight the historical importance of the area.