Rare railway items auction coming down the line
A RAFT of memorabilia from The Great Western Railway will be auctioned in the island later this month
The 36 lots include signals, signs, clothing, cutlery, crockery, tools, flags, a window blind, a lamp and more.
Martel Maides Auctions fine art cataloguer and auctioneer Shaun Vidamour said the items were being sold on behalf of a local collector who had amassed them over the past 30 to 40 years.
‘This is something very different for Guernsey,’ he said.
‘In the UK you have specific auctions for this type of thing and there are three or four auctioneers that specialise in it.’
About 90% of the items carry the GWR stamp. The same collector is selling about 100 GWR items in total. Some were sold at a previous auction and the lots will be spread across three sales in total.
‘There was a lot of interest in the previous sale and about 50% of the things went to off-island bidders,’ said Mr Vidamour.
The Great Western Railway – sometimes known as God’s Wonderful Railway – was a British railway company that linked London with the South West and West of England, the West Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833 and ran its first trains in 1838.
It originated from the wish of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the second port of the country and the chief one for American trade.
It was nationalised in January 1948 and the company was formally wound up in December 1949.
Some 40 years after nationalisation, British Rail was privatised and the old name was revived by Great Western Trains, the company that provided passenger services on the old GWR routes to South Wales and the South West which subsequently became First Great Western, part of the FirstGroup.
In September 2015 it changed its name to Great Western Railway in order to ‘reinstate the ideals of our founder’.
The operating infrastructure is now the responsibility of Network Rail.
Appropriate parts of its stations and bridges, some built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, have been preserved so historic GWR structures can still be recognised.
The sale will also feature four non-railway related, but original, enamel signs – Lyons Tea, Michelin, Tower Tea and Bourneville Cocoa – that belong to the same person.
n The items will feature in a Vintage, Antique and Modern Sale at Martel Maides Auctions starting at 10am and 2pm on Tuesday 21 May. All lots can be viewed between 9am and noon on Saturday 11 and Saturday 18 May and between 8.30am and 5pm on Friday 17 and Monday 20 May.
Cornet Street is scheduled to be closed to traffic for resurfacing from 7 to 24 May.
n For further details go to www.martelmaidesauctions.com
