A TREASURED slice of Romsey’s history which is also of international importance has been saved for the nation, thanks to a £2 million grant.

The Broadlands Archive, which includes a vast array of historical documents, was in danger of being broken up and sold at auction to individual buyers around the world.

But Southampton University can now meet its £2.85m price tag after securing £1,993,760 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), which gives grants as a last resort to save national treasures.

The personal papers of Lord and Lady Mountbatten, the 19th century prime minister, Lord Palmerston and the Victorian social reformer the Earl of Shaftesbury, will stay in the Hampshire for good. The 4,500-box collection also includes handwritten notes to Mountbatten from Gandhi and 1,200 letters from Queen Victoria.

They will stay at the University of Southampton’s Hartley Library for generations to come, thanks to the hard work of a team of fund-raisers and negotiators.

The news of the grant comes seven months after it was revealed that the Broadlands Estate was selling off the archive to help fund major refurbishment work. Estate managers said the Georgian house needed a complete re-wiring and re-plumbing and asbestos had to be removed to comply with safety regulations. The work is estimated to cost between £4 and £5 million.

Professor Chris Woolgar, head of special collections at the university, immediately launched an appeal, securing cash from a number of different funding bodies.

The appeal seemed stuck on £800,000 and the goal was only reached following intervention from the government-funded NHMF, which described the collection as of “immense national and historical importance”.

Professor Woolgar added: “This is a real feather in the university’s cap. We’re delighted to receive this grant and we thank all those who have supported our campaign to acquire these precious archives.

“It is impossible to underestimate their historical and national impact. In particular, without them, we would find it difficult to understand fully the foundations of the independent states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Richard Baker-Jordan, director of estates at Broadlands, said he never doubted the university’s ability to raise the money. “We are delighted with the news because it takes the pressure off everybody,” he said.

Phoebe Merrick, chairman of the Lower Test Valley Archaeological Study (LTVAS) said: “I am absolutely thrilled. It is such an important collection and it means that those of us doing work on the history of the area will simply be able to go down the road and see the archive for ourselves.”