Chris Bonington on Prana Black Crag, Borrowdale. Photo: © Chris Bonington Picture Library

Some of the most important items of British mountaineering history that had been kept in a shed are now safe after a two-year preservation project.

Thousands of papers and other artefacts had been stored in Sir Chris Bonington’s Cumbrian garden shed but are now available for the public to view after a lottery grant enabled the setting up of the archive.

A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the Mountain Heritage Trust to catalogue and make accessible expedition documents, correspondence, press cuttings scrapbooks and manuscripts of the mountaineer’s books.

The British Mountaineering Council has also contributed to funding of the Bonington Archive Collection, which is now housed at the MHT in Penrith, Cumbria.

Everest summiteer Sir Chris is a mountaineer, journalist, photographer and, at times, diplomat and ambassador.

A spokesperson for the trust said: “Chris Bonington started climbing in 1951 at the age of 16, pioneering new rock routes in the UK, before moving out to the Alps in the late fifties, making important British first ascents and struck out into the Himalaya in 1960 with the first ascent of Annapurna II, a peak only a few metres short of 8,000.

“He went on to lead the successful Annapurna South Face and Everest South West Face expeditions in the 1970s and took part in the development of compact lightweight expeditions.”

The funding enabled the MHT archivist and volunteers Tony and Pat Williams to catalogue and make accessible the collection to the general public and interested researchers.

Sir Chris said: “I have kept all the correspondence, papers and diaries from all of my expeditions over the last 48 years in a shed at the bottom of my garden which reflects some of the most important British expeditions of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

“I’m delighted that these are now going to see the light of day thanks to the expertise of Maxine Willett, archivist of the Mountain Heritage Trust and, most important of all, will be made available to the mountaineering community and anyone wanting to research this element of mountain history.”