Antiques Roadshow guest shocked at value of Sir Winston Churchill's belongings found at dump

Virgin Radio

17 Jul 2023, 09:52

It's amazing what some people can find in the rubbish. One lucky man was stunned during the Antiques Roadshow by the value of some random possessions belonging to former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill which were found at the dump.

Antiques guru Mark Smith valued Churchill's black top hat, a glasses case, letters from his staff and a photograph of the PM for a pretty penny, which were discovered from a refuse site where the guest worked for 15 years.

Expert Mark said about the items of Churchill - who served as leader of the country from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War and from 1951 to 1955: 'You turned up today with a very big box and this is only a fraction of what was in that box. I said to you, "Where did you get this from?" What did you say?'

The guest replied: 'From the dump,' where he was allowed to 'pull out whatever' he wanted and had acquired three sheds-full of antiques from the rubbish site.

Mark continued: 'So we took out some of the stuff and you said, "I've got this hat, I've got this and this," What was the story you then told me?'

The guest said: 'I've got loads of letters, over 200 letters from this same load and it was from a mother to her son.

'The mother used to work for Winston Churchill, she was a cook and the husband was a butler for Winston Churchill as well.

'She used to write to her son every day about the daily goings of Winston Churchill, what he was getting up to and how he was feeling and just interesting stuff about him.'

Mark said: 'Then amongst all of that are these momentos of Winston. This one here, is that the lady? So a signed photo from Winston to her, the cook.

'We've got this cigar. Winston was known for those obviously, a cigar case, a signed photo and the pièce de résistance, I have to say, Winston's hat.'

He continued: 'You've caused me a bit of a problem because if you'd come to me with all of this stuff and said, "I've been buying this over the years and I buy it from auctions and all of that sort of stuff," I would have thought to myself, well, very likely it's not real.

'But I've seen all those letters from that lady to her son. Daily letters saying this is what Winston is doing today and this is during wartime as well. So she is sending home all sorts of information which corroborates all of the things you've got and it's not just these bits here.'

Mark concluded: 'So, we had a think about this. I think that your box. Remind me where you got it from again? The dump. We think that your box is worth £10,000.'

Who knew the dump was so lucrative?

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