SOME of the country’s most treasured books have gone underground in Winsford’s salt mine.

Manchester’s Central Library has transportation some 1.5 million books - 10,800 shelves worth - to the town’s specialist storage unit, Deepstore, 150 meters below the ground.

The books are the oldest and most rare of the collection and will be stored underground for three years while the library undergoes a major refurbishment due to start this summer.

Neil MacInnes, head of library and information services at Manchester City Council said: “With so many rare and precious books of significant historical importance being temporarily removed from Central library, it is vital that they are stored securely and in the best conditions.

“The salt mines are an absolutely invaluable resource for this. The team at Deepstore are extremely experiencedand we have the piece of mind that the collection will be kept safely until they can be returned to the library once it reopens in 2013.”

The oldest book in the collection is a handwritten, 13th century copy of the Codex Justinianus, a code of law compiled for the Roman Emporer Justinian.

The collection also includes the oldest printed book in the library’s possession - a latin bible from 1473 as well as 30 other books all printed before the year 1501.

Early copies of grounbreaking works from Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and John Evelyn will also be nestled below the town beside many 16th and 17th century including a copy Shakepear’s Second Folio.

The books will sit alongside documents from the National Archive London, police, university and hospital records, BBC archives and a scale model of Wembley Stadium.

The 250 year mines remain at a constant humidy of 65 per cent and a temperature of 14 degrees celsius and are free from natural dangers such as flooding, ultra violet light and vermin - making them the ideal environment to preserve the historic works.