Being a Yorkshireman I have always had a love for Yorkshire cricket and spent many happy hours at Headingley Cricket Ground where I made many friends over the years just relaxing watching the game.
There is now a good market for antiques and vintage sporting memorabilia and I recently sold a cricket bat from the 1890’s for over £100, and old cricket postcards have gone for £10 each. Anything old of sporting interest sells really well including trophies, medals, and old programmes. Of particular value are old football programmes pre 1950s. The most valuable football programme I have ever seen was a Leeds City Football Club programme, pre first world war. The club was disbanded in 1919 after financial irregularities and became Leeds United. Nothing much changes and irregularities are still going on in football clubs even in modern times.
Footballers in the early days were terribly exploited by rich business men who made a fortune out of gate receipts and paid the footballers a pittance. As late as 1951 the maximum wage for a professional footballer was £14 per week, this was approx. double the wage of industrial workers. Today’s professional players receive many thousands of pounds a week. In the early days it was better than going down the pit or working in factories.
Our little shop is doing quite well and seems to be getting a bit busier now that spring has arrived. We have a good selection of new stock with some particularly nice items of furniture, also old galvanised garden planters which always seem to sell well at this time of year. We also have some beautiful large Victorian garden urns which I bought and collected from the far north of Scotland. They stood at the grand entrance steps at a large country house and stand about 4ft tall, with a couple of smaller ones. I do like to travel and have bought items as far away as Somerset and Scotland.
Please give us a call if you are having a spring clean or just a bit of a clear out, I love rummaging in old sheds and garages!
Please see advert below for contact details and opening times.
