REPLICA soldiers from China's famed terracotta army are settling into their new home in Cartmel after being flown into the country by a village resident.

The life-sized pair - exact replicas of the treasures unearthed from the tomb of the first emperor Qin Shihuangdi in the 1970s - were imported by Neil Stirling who has kindled a passion for China since he was a child.

But their carefully-packaged arrival in South Lakeland has coincided with an announcement that the largest number of real terracotta warriors ever to leave China are to march on London this September.

To find out more about the replica warriors at Cartmel, plus pictures, and the exhibition coming to the British Museum, see the March 16 edition of The Westmorland Gazette.