North Shropshire Reclamation
Closing Down Architectural Auction (Un-Reserved)
One of the first architectural auctions of 2015, this popular two day off-site auction held at North Shropshire Reclamation at Wackley Lodge Farm, Burlton, Shrewsbury on Friday 13th & Saturday 14th March turned out to be a brilliant success for Wellers but more imporantly the vendor. This was billed as a closing down sale prior to the site being redeveloped for residential use with the lots being wholy ‘unreserved’ with a necessity that all lots must be sold. Auctioneer Glen Snelgar stated “the sale estimates are designed to encourage buyers to attend and have that definite ‘come and buy me’ feel to them.” A further attraction was that 95 percent of the lots that were sold in this auction were without VAT on the hammer price, thus made this a ‘do not miss’ event!
The Friday of the sale featured the yard contents of salvaged materials predominately bricks, tiles and stone building components, including windows and archways, as well as Yorkstone paving, street lamp posts, granite columns, timber beams, lock gate timbers and flooring. The contents of the door store included individual feature lots as well as large lots with up to 20 doors for sale in each lot. One of the standout lots from this first day of the auction was a ‘set of eight mahogany six panel doors‘ £2,300 against a top esitmate of £400). Other notable lots from this day included a ‘pair of large oak arched top six panel doors‘ £1,150 (est £80-£120), a ‘large Victorian stone feature originally salvaged from a bank in the Wirral featuring Prince of Wales feathers and scroll sections‘ which made £980 (est £500-£800) and ‘forty square yards of 2 inch Kiln dried oak‘ £950 (est £300-£500). If you were after a stone trough then you would have been amazed by the value achieved by our auctioneer with lot 349 which was a ‘large Grinsal stone trough 1000 x 1500 x 750‘ fetching £780 (est £200-400).
On Saturday 14th a further 800 lots were sold which included more end user items such as garden statuary, features and period elements. All the statuary displayed on the farms driveway was sold including a pair of impressive ‘Kingsale Hounds on large plinths‘ which fetched an impressive £3,800 (est £3,000-£5,000) which was pretty much bang on the middle of the estimate. There was also ‘a pair of Semi Recumbent Lions also on stone plinths‘ which fetched £3,200 (est. £2,000-£4,000). One item of statuary that went notably above its estimate was the ‘(r) bath stone reposing stag on a bath stone plinth’ in lot 1105 which made £3,000 (est £1,000-£2,000). Other notable lots from the day included an ‘oak Gothic style fire surround‘ £850 (est £80-£120) and a ‘red telephone box‘ £650 (est £150-£250).
There were many other types of items such as pond surrounds with integral fountains available, Regency style urns and sundials. There were also many stone troughs, chimney pots, garden benches, hoppers, and cast iron agricultural features to include old implements, troughs and mangers together with four wagons and carts, millstones, garden rollers as well as a good selection of fireplaces and surrounds, sanitary wares, windows and fanlights that also passed under the hammer which was hard fought by both the trade and end users over the course of the second day. Auctioneer Luke Duddy commented stating “both days have gone tremendously well and there was a lot of good kit that realised good prices so as you can imagine we are so pleased for Shaun Powell as it was important for us that their business ended on a high!”. Luke also went on to state that “this was by far my most favourite auction that I have ever been involved with or auctioneered at”.