THE original Tinker Bell is to fly back into the spotlight.

A diminutive Swiss bell, bought by the creator of Peter Pan, the Scottish writer JM Barrie, was the sound of the mischievous faerie when his world-famous tale was first staged in London more than a hundred years ago.

Now that bell, a piece of both theatrical and literary history, is to return to the Scottish town which inspired Barrie’s tales of Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and the world of Neverland.

The bell will take pride of place in a historic house in Dumfries, in the newly created National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling.

This is based in a house, Moat Brae, the gardens of which the young Barrie played as a teenager, and whose surroundings inspired his most famous work.

Moat Brae house and gardens will re-open to the public in the spring of next year after a £6.5m redevelopment.

The bell itself, one of a pair, was specifically picked by Barrie on a trip to Switzerland.

READ MORE: JM Barrie's first play performed in Dumfries celebration

Small, only around an inch tall, it has a “clear and distinctive” ring which could be heard in a large and noisy room.

When the play was first staged, at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in 1904, the faerie was represented by a light and the sound of the bell.

After the production, one of the bells was given to the theatre’s foreman and scene changed, Elias Elias.

It subsequently was handed down the Elias family as a treasured family heirloom.

Recently, his grand daughter got in touch with the Moat Brae initiative, and now the bell will be on show at Moat Brae opens next year.

It will be housed in a case, the project director Cathy Agnew said, but it will form part of an interactive display for children.

When children claps their hands, they will hear different kinds of bell rings.

She said: “It is an object of such real significance for us, and for Moat Brae, and part of how we want people to respond to the place in the same way that JM Barrie responded to the house.

“We want people visiting us to be as inspired as he was.”

READ MORE: Celebrations around Moat Brae revamp in Dumfries

She added: “He tried all sorts of bells in Switzerland, and its ring is extremely clear, clear enough that when it was rung in a room full of people, it brought everyone to attention, despite its size.”

Simon Davidson, Moat Brae’s Centre Director, said: “It’s quite magical to have the original Tinker Bell here at Moat Brae.

“It’s a very special piece of literary and theatrical history and I’m sure people will be charmed to see, and hear, the actual bell which JM Barrie chose to represent a character who came to be loved by generations of children all across the world.”

J M Barrie lived in Dumfries from the age of 13 to 17, and played in the garden at Moat Brae.

He said of his time there: “I think the five years or so that I spent here were probably the happiest of my life, for indeed I have loved this place.”

His first work of fiction was a “log book” recording the games of pirates and adventure that he played there under the name of “Sixteen String Jack”.

He attended the nearby Dumfries Academy and enjoyed his first experiences in staged productions at Dumfries Theatre Royal.

READ MORE: Joanna Lumley on Moat Brae and JM Barrie

When the writer returned to the town and on being awarded the Freedom of Dumfries, he described his childhood there as “the happiest days” of his life.

Ms Agnew has been part of the project to save Moat Brae since 2009, when the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust was established to save the house and its garden from demolition, and to establish the location as the “birthplace of Peter Pan.”

She said that the addition of the Tinkerbell bell will be another draw to the house, which she said has ambitions to attract international as well as UK visitors to the town.

Ms Agnew added: “Wherever you go in the world, the story of Peter Pan is known.

“During the Commonwealth Games [in Glasgow] we had children from 12 countries where and they were all interested and knew about Peter Pan and JM Barrie.

“W are hoping, with our education and outreach programme, to have a lot of visitors from Scotland, but also further afield: many international visitors have been in touch already.”

The decade-long project to save Moat Brae, and turn it into the National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling has been run by the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust (PPMBT) whose Patron is the actress Joanna Lumley.

The large house was bought by a Henry Gordon in 1863.

A banker and solicitor, he had two sons: Henry and Stewart, who grew up there and attended the nearby Dumfries Academy, where they became friends with JM Barrie.

James Matthew Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, in Angus in 1860, but had been schooled at Glasgow Academy, Forfar Academy, and then Dumfries.

Barrie at this time was living with his elder brother in a house a few hundred metres from Moat Brae.

As well as attending school, the friends played in the garden of the house, which Barrie later said was “an enchanted land” for him, laying seeds for what would become Neverland.

Moat Brae remained in the ownership of the Gordon family until 1906.

Afterwards, the house passed through several hands, being at one time a nursing home, until it was nearly demolished in 2009, before being saved by the Trust.