VO: It's the nation's favorite antiques experts...

I don't know what to do.

VO: ..with £200 each, a classic car, and a goal: to scour Britain for antiques.

What a little diamond.

VO: The aim - to make the biggest profit at auction, but it's no mean feat.

Back in the game.

Charlie!

VO: There'll be worthy winners and valiant losers.

Oh!

VO: So, will it be the high road to glory or the slow road to disaster?

Oh!

VO: This is the Antiques Road Trip.

VO: Yeah.

VO: Today, our experts shop in Shropshire.

See if you can tell which one lives here.

CHRISTINA: Ah, John Deere, got to love a John Deere.

VO: Yip, tractor spotter Christina Trevanion's a country lass as well as an auctioneer.

She even learned to drive in a Land Rover.

This is the life, driving round my home county in this car being a tour guide, boring you senseless.

PAUL: Sorry, what were you saying?

Were you talking there?

I just got Shropshire, Wrekin, Severn, yeah.

VO: Wrekin, eh?

That big hill, almost as prominent as her co-driver's wallet.

You've got so much money to spend.

You have got so much money.

Walking lopsided.

VO: Not surprised because Cumbrian auctioneer and Dapper Dan, Paul Laidlaw has been fairly raking it in on this trip.

Thanks very much.

300, 300!

VO: His latest coup, some Georgian glass he bought for £1 and sold for 360.

CHRISTINA: Bravo.

Well done.

VO: Christina has so far increased her £200 stake to a modest £224.54.

VO: While Paul, who began with the same sum, has already managed to almost quadruple it with £780.34 now at his disposal.

VO: Our trip begins in Clare, Suffolk, before careering around the heart of England and then heading north to end up in a Cheshire climax in Northwich.

But today their HMC Mark IV starts out at Shrewsbury in Shropshire and makes it way towards an auction in The Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent.

VO: But first to the Salopian county town, where, until a few years ago, Shrewsbury football club played their matches beside the Severn at the picturesque Gay Meadow.

Ah there is a little reminder.

Hello, hi.

Christina.

Nice to meet you.

CHRISTINA: Hi.

What's your name?

JIM: Jim.

Jim.

Lovely to meet you, Jim.

Handsome Jim.

Handsome Jim, that's the name, is it?

VO: Hm, especially if you want a bargain, Christina.

Has she found something already?

Oh, hello.

Oh, that is a bit of magic.

VO: Ah, a pair of Alexander Blakely paintings by the look of it.

JIM: Very nice, aren't they?

CHRISTINA: Aren't they just.

Yeah.

So, they are a pair, is that 195 for the pair?

JIM: No.

So, you've got them individually priced but you won't split them?

I won't split them, yeah.

OK. Alright, I can do a deal on the pair, then.

JIM: 250.

That's a good price.

They are very beautiful.

But I don't have £250.

You can't have them, can you?

CHRISTINA: Exactly.

Have they got any Provenance?

Where have they come from?

I don't do the history, it costs extra.

VO: Fair enough, Jim.

Scottish born Blakely was a 19th century portrait painter.

These two are very typical of his work, look a bit faded to me.

I would be looking to pay probably 150.

Good Lord.

I'll do you the pair for £200.

JIM: Now, that's a good deal.

Split the difference with me at 180.

Split the difference and go 190.

No, not going to go more than 180.

JIM: 185.

CHRISTINA: Nope.

Good Lord.

There is a dog to be fed.

VO: Blimey Jim, what on Earth are you giving him?

Let me have a really good look at them and then we'll talk again.

JIM: OK. CHRISTINA: Alright.

JIM: Yes.

CHRISTINA: I am quite interested in these pictures.

I have sold one of these in my auction and it sold incredibly well.

The only reservation is, that unfortunately the auction we are going to, I don't think has internet bidding, therefore doesn't particularly have an international audience and these pictures, to do them justice, need an international audience.

And they could bomb.

VO: Yup, they could very well do that.

I said I was going to buy five things for a pound.

I can't go and spend all my money on the first item.

Aargh!

VO: Ignorant of that agony... VO: Paul's on the way to his first shop, just outside Shrewsbury at Atcham.

Hello?

Hello.

How are you?

Jerrard is it?

Yeah, welcome to Mytton Antiques.

Thank you very much.

What a property.

It is like something out of Hansel and Gretel this.

VO: But only in a nice way because this cottage is full of fine things.

Not cheap but then our Paul does have a few bob.

Nice little George III Sheraton satinwood veneered cross banged burr walnut inlaid caddy circa 1780.

Nah, it's a biscuit tin.

VO: Empty too by the sounds of it.

But it is great, isn't it?

I don't think this is expensive, £58.

It is a little joy, it is fun and you can use it, you can still put your teabags in it or whatever.

Is it for me?

Not at the moment.

But I like it.

VO: Not enough though.

Keep looking.

Jim?

VO: While back in Shrewsbury, it looks like things may be about to get interesting.

CHRISTINA: Where did we get to?

185, for the pair.

Stupid price.

VO: Well, I did say maybe.

Gird your loins.

CHRISTINA: My issue is, obviously there is a lot of damage to the frames, and they have been re-lined, they have new backs so somebody has taken them out.

JIM: Somebody took them out, they put money inside, covered it over and left it.

CHRISTINA: Gold sovereigns?

JIM: Well, could be.

CHRISTINA: I am still thinking, 150, 160.

No you didn't, you went up to 170.

Nah, well I've changed my mind.

You went up to 170.

CHRISTINA: I've changed my mind.

JIM: You can't go back down.

CHRISTINA: It is a woman's prerogative.

VO: She's right, Jim.

I think 160 would be a fair price for the two.

JIM: Good Lord, no.

CHRISTINA: Oh come on Jim.

Can I go and make myself a cup of tea?

No!

JIM: I am dying of thirst here.

I'll leave you to it.

That's it.

VO: He's off again?

CHRISTINA: Jim!

JIM: That's robbery.

Daylight robbery.

CHRISTINA: Jim!

JIM: Yes, darling.

VO: It is like some sort of courtship ritual, isn't it?

CHRISTINA: 160?

JIM: No.

CHRISTINA: 165?

JIM: No!

CHRISTINA: Come on, fiver.

JIM: 175.

I'll start going up if you keep going down.

CHRISTINA: Do you feel insulted?

I do.

Highly.

165, you've got a deal.

And I'll get out of your hair for the rest of the day.

Go on.

JIM: OK, go on.

CHRISTINA: 165.

You bring tears to a glass eye, you know that.

VO: So that is one deal happily arrived at.

Bye Murphy.

Bye.

Bye.

VO: He'll bite you.

But Paul, it seems has drawn a blank.

So he is now heading back towards Shrewsbury and Christina's shop.

And the dog.

PAUL: Four floors of antiques and vintage, it may be big enough for both of us.

PAUL: Junk 'n' Disorderly, it has got my name on it.

CHRISTINA: Hello.

PAUL: Is your work here done?

CHRISTINA: What are you doing here?

You are like a bad penny.

What you doing here?

Oh, don't see it like that.

What's going on?

Well, I bought so well in that first shop, I'm on a roll.

Yeah, out.

Out.

PAUL: You off-ski, yeah?

Yeah, I'm done.

PAUL: So you've done it?

CHRISTINA: Yeah.

Oh!

See you later, have fun.

It is a plan.

See you later.

VO: Paul's turn then.

And apart from the missing paintings, there's still plenty to choose from.

Including a little militaria.

PAUL: Here we go.

VO: Well, quite a lot actually.

PAUL: A rack of uniforms and that's my bag.

However, that's post-war German.

Bundeswehr, that's post-war dress, who cares, it is, well, buying fancy dress, history is what we're looking for.

This however, is Second World War, royal navy.

OK, watch this, switch, geek mode, anorak mode.

This is called a jumper.

Yeah, you think a jumper is a woolly pully but in admiralty language this is a jumper.

And it would indeed be worn with bell-bottom trouser with seven folds to represent the seven seas.

These five stripes here are war service chevrons.

These were given in the Second World War for each year of service.

That guy served for the duration of the war and he was still wearing this in 1944 because in 1944 he had earned four stripes.

See how this one's a bolt on.

Isn't that great, a wee bit of detective work?

We can pin this down to a period without a label or a date.

I can tell you more about the guy, he is by my reckoning, a signaler, is he not?

Because they are semaphore flags.

It all starts to reveal itself.

VO: Clever stuff.

Jim though wishes to put a more eccentric item forward.

JIM: It is a good 'un.

PAUL: It is all about the story, isn't it?

I can give you any story you like.

PAUL: It is a mounted horse's hoof complete with shoe.

Been fitted with a brass collar and a hinged mahogany lid.

And it would serve as a baccy pot or a match pot, whatever you want.

JIM: I'm giving you 95.

I'm open to a bit of hardball.

Look, I've removed the price, what does that tell you?

I'm ready for a sale.

I need some money, I've a dog to feed, look at him.

VO: Didn't he say the same thing to Christina?

Just how much dog food does that dog want?

So small.

PAUL: For my money, the best of these are hooves of mounts that charged with the Light Brigade or whatever.

Then you've got me going.

Because frankly, that's disgusting.

Show me some history and then you've got my attention.

Now if that ST is Sergeant Lamb of the 17th Lancers, I'm interested.

VO: Quite.

Now let the horse trading re-commence without the dog.

Give me 45.

PAUL: No.

JIM: I can't... PAUL: I reckon that is going to make 30 to 40 quid under the hammer.

JIM: You are joking me?!

Give me the 40 and I'll take it.

And that's the end of it now.

PAUL: No, listen to me, we've got an old uniform and a green helmet there.

What would be the price on the three pieces?

And I don't rate them by the way, I'm just trying to take the pain out of that.

JIM: Give me 75 for the lot.

PAUL: No.

That's dirt cheap.

Because the blue uniform... JIM: 50 quid.

PAUL: ..is neither here nor there.

JIM: There you go, now, that's what you wanted.

50 quid.

You want to shake on it?

Yes or no?

PAUL: Yeah.

JIM: Done.

No problem.

VO: Well Jim, yet again it has been emotional.

I tell you what, you'll do well to get a tenner for it.

VO: This is no joking matter.

Look after yourself, my friend.

JIM: You too.

PAUL: All the best to you.

JIM: And I hope I don't see you again.

PAUL: Words out my mouth, big man.

VO: Now still in Shrewsbury, where has our local lass got to?

Bill, how are you?

Christina.

How are you?

Very well thank you.

What a surprise.

Yeah, I'm sorry about this.

Gate-crashing.

Oh, you are always welcome.

VO: Now, I don't know about you but I reckon those two have met before.

Could local knowledge help?

Certainly a very nice shop.

Bill, I love this, this is a printing block tray, isn't it?

BILL: It is.

A printing block tray, you have put on the wall and it just makes a really lovely display cabinet.

BILL: It takes all those lovely little items that you've got that you just don't know what to do with but they are beautiful to look at.

Yeah, that my husband curses.

Does he?

Yeah, I'll bet they are all over the place.

VO: Christina could certainly do with pointing in the right direction.

Oh Bill, I need to find something that I'll make about £500 profit on.

BILL: Are you?

Not sure that's the object.

CHRISTINA: No.

VO: Anything else, Billy?

Oh, I tell you what I do like.

BILL: Oh the tin plate.

CHRISTINA: That is pretty cool, isn't it?

BILL: That's fabulous.

CHRISTINA: I like that.

OK missing its front.

Yeah.

Yeah, there is bits wrong with it.

Oh but look at him driving his train.

It is 50s, it is Japanese.

Needs a little bit of care and attention.

It does but that is great.

Does it work?

Well, no.

It doesn't.

Well I don't know if it is bad off working, the bits are there.

CHRISTINA: Oh yeah.

What have we got on it, £20.

BILL: Yep.

CHRISTINA: It looks great but... BILL: It is a decorative object.

Like me, it has issues.

Don't we all.

VO: Speak for yourselves.

BILL: 12 quid it is yours.

CHRISTINA: Yeah?

BILL: You'll make a profit.

CHRISTINA: Will I?

BILL: What do you think?

CHRISTINA: Can we make it a tenner?

BILL: Oh you are... CHRISTINA: Tenner?

BILL: What have you got there?

Is that a handshake or what?

CHRISTINA: It is a handshake.

BILL: Alright.

CHRISTINA: Thank you very much.

BILL: You're welcome.

CHRISTINA: You're an angel.

VO: Deal sealed and issues or not she should be chuffed about that little buy.

But whilst Christina has been bargaining, Paul's back behind the wheel.

VO: Heading east towards the Birmingham suburb of Erdington where inside this mysterious warehouse there's a wealth of incredible history.

SPEAKER: How can I help you?

Paul Laidlaw, I've arranged to pop in and see you.

Look at that.

Holy Moses.

Here goes.

VO: Paul's about to get a close look at where the government keeps our wills.

Hello there.

Phil?

Paul.

Good to see you.

Welcome to Iron Mountain.

Thanks very much.

What a place this is!

VO: It certainly is because since 1858, when our wills were made public, they have been archived and there is an awful lot of them here.

PHIL: We store the wills, 80 million of them on behalf of her majesty's courts and tribunal service.

PAUL: Right.

And we have got some really really strict controls in place around temperature, humidity, and as you've seen security when you came through.

PAUL: Yes indeed.

VO: Nowadays they are hard at work digitizing all this and putting it online for everyone, for those studying their family history to biographers of Great Britons.

PAUL: Oh it is, it is amazing.

This is Indiana Jones.

PHIL: Oh, absolutely.

VO: But there is nothing quite like taking a close up look at the originals.

These are hundreds of thousands of people we are looking at.

PHIL: Each one of these pages, each one of these documents can tell you a story.

And then you have got the more interesting people such as Edward William Elgar.

Right, the composer.

Right.

PHIL: Absolutely.

I regret that owing to the sudden collapse of everything artistic and commercial, I found it necessary to revoke the will which I previously made and to make this present will.

So even in the wills of famous people, of people that we know, there are still stories to be told about how fortunes were made and sometimes were lost or fortunes changed.

PAUL: So why has he re-written the will?

PHIL: At this time in his life, you can see here that he is struggling with everything around him and that was caused by the death of his wife, Alice.

So really tragic circumstances that led to this.

It reads like a book.

It does.

Not how I expected.

Absolutely, yeah.

PAUL: Who else have you got?

PHIL: Straight away here is a name you may recognize.

PAUL: Florence Nightingale.

The lady with the lamp.

It is.

Absolutely.

You could just keep doing this.

Blow my mind.

PHIL: Followed by... PAUL: Wow!

Winston Churchill.

Just beyond belief.

PAUL: I know who that is, Beatrix Heelis, that is the married name of Beatrix Potter.

PHIL: It absolutely is.

There you go.

The lady left all of her estate to the National Trust.

VO: Yup, they are all in here.

Everyone, from your great granny to the Kray twins.

Take a look online, at the YouGov website.

PHIL: After you.

There is also a touch of the James Bond, is there not?

PHIL: There is.

VO: Especially poignant on the centenary of the Great War is a collection of almost 300,000 soldiers' wills.

PAUL: In the event of my death I give my property and effects to Mrs Catherine McCarthy.

Signed 6184 Private McCarthy.

Dearie me.

PHIL: That is such different circumstances to some of the other wills that we saw.

Died in their bed, the great and the good.

This came from the mud of France and Flanders.

PAUL: And officers saying, you better fill that in and it could be the morra that it is applicable.

Nothing brings it home more than the pocket book we have in front of us.

PHIL: It has actually got a bullet hole in it.

The soldiers carried the pocket books around with them when they were on the front line.

And probably one of the last things that was ever written in here was the will.

PHIL: So that is the reason... PAUL: That's why it's here.

PHIL: ..That's why it's here, absolutely, yeah.

PHIL: And quite interesting with the will we have got here, a request from the soldier, Horace Henry Cook, saying, had not the hand of the Almighty intervened, the lady in question would have been his wife.

So he is asking in this for his girlfriend to be treated as though she would have been his wife had he not have gone to war and had he not died.

I would never have guessed walking in here that I'd be so moved.

PAUL: Acres and acres of paper but it is way much more than that.

PHIL: Absolutely, it is, yeah.

VO: Now they have a saying hereabouts, all around the Wrekin.

CHRISTINA: Driving off into the sunset.

PAUL: This is it.

VO: It means taking the scenic route.

PAUL: Thelma and Louise.

VO: Night night you two.

VO: Next day we are back on the hot topic.

CHRISTINA: So how are you doing with your sovereigns?

Have you managed to walk very far or are your pockets weighing you down?

VO: Well, he didn't part with too many of them yesterday, that's for sure.

Shelling out just £50 for a sailor's uniform, a helmet and a horse's hoof.

You want to shake on it?

Yes or no?

PAUL: Yeah.

JIM: Done.

VO: So, he still has well over £700 left.

While Christina took her modest hoard and gambled splashing out £175 on a tin plate train and two Victorian portraits.

Aargh!

VO: So, she now has less than 50 left.

Although what they do have in common is a bruising encounter with Jim.

PAUL: I am spending a chunk of my profit on some therapy.

PAUL: Two Celts going at it.

It was like 13 rounds with Barry McGuigan.

CHRISTINA: Really?

VO: Later they will be making for a Staffordshire auction at Stoke-on-Trent.

But their next stop is back in Shropshire at Shifnal.

VO: It was around these parts that PG Wodehouse set his famous Blandings castle saga and Shifnal is rumored to be the inspiration for the fictional town of Market Blandings.

VO: Nothing quite like a shared shop to up the ante.

Hello.

Hello, hi Christina.

Nice to meet you, what was your name?

I'm Jacqui.

Jacqui, lovely to meet you, Jacqui.

How you doing Jacqui, I'm Paul.

JACQUI: Hello Paul.

You don't need to know him.

VO: What did I say?

Deep breaths all round.

Should we risk upsetting the kilter of the universe and my feng shui, I am going to deviate from clockwise from the door.

No.

Your OCD won't cope with that.

You heard it.

No, I can't.

I can't do it.

OK, I'm going this way.

VO: Plenty to choose from, you two.

CHRISTINA: So how much is on that?

JACQUI: 995.

CHRISTINA: Owah!

Yeah.

Wow!

That is about £990 more than I've got.

VO: Close enough, Christina.

Now, what's Paul's game?

Jacqui, you've got a sense of humor, haven't you?

JACQUI: Why?

PAUL: Do you want to play a wee joke?

So that's celebrating the centenary of The Great Exhibition, The Great Exhibition was put on by Victoria and Albert.

VO: Aye aye.

It is effectively a tourist piece so there would have been a lot of them produced so if we are looking for scarcity factor, it is not going to be there.

It is a very generous discount, 350 to 60, are you quite sure about that?

JACQUI: Yes.

The icy look.

We were kidding, by the way.

CHRISTINA: You are a blighter.

I'm looking at £2 items.

VO: Yes, you should be ashamed of yourself, Paul.

That looks affordable at least.

CHRISTINA: This is quite fun, what's this?

Is that for sale?

This is a display cabinet for cigars and it's something that we've had that we use to display cigarettes, lighters and cigarette cases in.

CHRISTINA: Is it for sale?

JACQUI: If you like it, yeah.

I quite like that.

So what would you price that at?

I would probably put like £45 on it.

Oh, would you?

I wouldn't be looking to pay that for it.

But I am open to offers.

Would you be very very insulted if I said a fiver?

Not really.

Really?

Could I have it for a fiver?

Yeah you can have it for £5.

Are you sure?

Yes, I'm positive.

You happy at that?

Yeah.

Deal.

Brilliant.

Jacqui, you are a star.

Didn't think I wanted to buy a Henri Wintermans display cabinet but life's a journey, isn't it?

VO: It sure is and Paul seems to be taking a brief detour getting to know the trading estate.

PAUL: Bureau, £10, it is for sale this stuff.

Vintage bike.

VO: Who is behind all of this treasure?

PAUL: Hello?

SELLER: Hello there.

It looks like you are selling, yeah?

Yes, I'm selling a few things to try and get rid of them.

VO: Sounding cheap.

PAUL: Is your clock running or no?

SELLER: No, it is not.

PAUL: I don't know if it is worth me bothering or not.

I've been told what it's worth.

SELLER: He says he wants about 20 quid for it.

VO: Now there is nothing more than Paul likes more than a wonky clock.

PAUL: These are commonly referred to as anniversary clocks.

This is a torsion clock, so instead of a swinging pendulum you have got an oscillating rotating weight here.

Your average domestic clock will run for eight days which means you've got to wind it once a week.

And if you forget, you've got a day to remember.

PAUL: Your torsion clock is a fantastic piece of engineering.

It is so sophisticated we wind our torsion clock typically once every 400 days.

PAUL: What do you think of that for horological sophistication?

You wind it once a year and what day might you wind it on?

Why don't you wind it on your anniversary.

Anniversary clock.

VO: And if it slips your mind you've still have got 35 days to remember.

PAUL: I suspect there is not much missing there.

Would you take a wee cheeky offer on you clock as a project?

Well, yes, I would.

I'm no interested at 20 quid, there is too much uncertainty in it.

PAUL: If a fiver would buy it, I'll shake your hand.

It wouldn't do it at a fiver.

There was no harm in asking.

Would have to be a tenner.

PAUL: A tenner, take a punt.

Nah, a fiver if it will buy it but that's it.

Yes, go on, I'll take a fiver.

I'll take a punt then.

PAUL: How badly wrong can it go for a fiver?

SELLER: Well I thank you very much.

PAUL: Thank you very much.

SELLER: Thank you.

PAUL: Cheers.

SELLER: It's yours.

VO: He just couldn't resist, could he?

Christina, meanwhile, is likewise exploring her inner rag and bone woman.

CHRISTINA: It is a mangle.

That's fab, isn't it?

What have you got on your mangle?

JACQUI: I've got £60.

Is it?

Would you be open to a deal on that?

I think so.

VO: Squeeze out a profit, maybe?

VO: For our younger viewers a mangle was once how we dried our newly washed clothes as Christina demonstrates.

What can the price be squeezed down to?

Would you take very little for it?

How little is very little?

I don't need a wee, I am just very nervous.

JACQUI: Would £20 be too much?

C: What would be the very very least you could do it for?

JACQUI: Ten?

It's a deal.

Thank you very much.

The sun shines...

Yes.

..on the righteous, Jackie.

Oh my God, I just bought a mangle.

VO: Yes, and spent a mere £15 in total for that and the display cabinet.

CHRISTINA: You're an angel.

There you go.

Thank you very much.

What a star.

Thank you.

VO: So, with Christina out of the picture, Paul now has the shop to himself.

Oh, I feel liberated.

Right.

Well.

I've managed to have a look round the bulk of the shop but I couldn't get near your cabinets.

They're sweet, aren't they?

There's wee coffee spoons there.

PAUL: Cute little terminals with the little bird feeding the chicks.

I think they've got novelty and jam by the bucket load.

Can I just make you an offer?

JACQUI: Yeah.

PAUL: Right, 25 quid for those.

I think I can accept that.

Have you played this game before?

Mm.

You're supposed to go "no I couldn't possibly."

JACQUI: No.

PAUL: And given that you are clearly a joy to do business with, I'll just shake your hand and give you some money.

JACQUI: OK. PAUL: That was easy.

VO: To the victor the spoons.

VO: Meanwhile, elsewhere in Shropshire, Christina is taking a bit of a break in the little town of Much Wenlock, where she's come to find out about the local GP who inspired Olympic history.

Hello.

Hi, I'm Christina.

Hi.

Welcome to Much Wenlock Museum.

Thank you.

VO: Curator Emma can tell her about the progressive influence of Much Wenlock's most famous son, Dr William Penny Brookes.

One of the things that he saw, both as being a doctor and a magistrate, was that young people needed something to focus their attentions, to keep them out of the local pubs and to get them out in the field and get them fit.

And by 1850 he had set up the first Wenlock Olympian Games.

EMMA: Local people were invited to come and take part.

Local families gave prizes for the games and really, it all took off and then became an annual event.

VO: So what, you might ask, was so incredible about organizing the town's sports day?

Well, the good doctor was ahead of his time in just about everything from understanding the need for physical fitness to encouraging social inclusion.

Did you have to be a certain somebody or could anybody take part?

No, that's what's really unique about the Wenlock games, was it was not only just open to people of all ages, it's also open to people of all classes.

And at this time a lot of sporting events were very much for gentlemen, the gentleman class.

Of course, rowing, it's all quite public school, isn't it?

CHRISTINA: But this was open to everybody and anybody.

Gosh, he was obviously a man of vision.

EMMA: He really was.

It seems to be anything that was new and exciting and radical happened in Wenlock, William Penny Brookes was involved in.

He brought gas to the town and set up the local gasworks.

He brought the railway here which was partly about getting people in to visit the games and to take part but also about making sure that Wenlock prospered as a town.

VO: Just like Charles Darwin, born the same year in nearby Shrewsbury, Dr Brookes was shaking things up.

So Shropshire was a real sort of hotbed of scientific thinkers, wasn't it?

That's really exciting.

I'm feeling quite proud.

It was a place where lots of new ideas developed.

VO: Within a few years the Much Wenlock games had become established in the sporting calendar with contests for both sexes and all results scrupulously recorded in the doctor's book of victors.

EMMA: And you've got a really interesting mix of traditional sports, like running the high leap, which was to become the high jump.

You've got the hurdle race, you had one mile which is quite impressive.

A wheelbarrow race?

EMMA: Indeed.

CHRISTINA: Really?

There was always a kind of novelty games and this year the novelty game is the wheelbarrow race where everyone was blindfolded.

CHRISTINA: Oh my goodness.

I think my favorite one is where the old ladies of the town raced for a pound of tea, which is an awful lot of tea.

CHRISTINA: Right, OK.

It was never repeated though because everyone was outraged that the ladies lifted their skirts and revealed their ankles.

Oh really?

EMMA: Too many men were shocked and flustered.

VO: Competitions included a version of jousting called tilting at the ring and keenly fought arts and crafts events like knitting and even recitation.

There was nothing amateur about the event though, with big prize money available.

It was really worth coming in taking part in the games, especially for the working class people.

This was a really significant sum of money for them.

VO: Also awarded were medals and soon Brookes was behind the formation of the National Olympian Association.

Then many years later, his Wenlock games influenced the young French baron who would create the modern Olympic movement.

In 1890, De Coubertin came to Wenlock.

He spent every night sitting up until very late at the Raven Hotel, talking to Brookes about their ideas and they worked very closely together after that on setting up the games.

Brilliant.

EMMA: In fact, here in 1891 the following year, he sends a French medal.

CHRISTINA: Wow, goodness me.

EMMA: And it was won by a local boy, Edward Marston Farmer, and in fact his descendants presented to the Wenlock Olympian society in the 1980s the very medal.

CHRISTINA: Oh wow!

This is the only sporting medal that De Coubertin ever presented.

CHRISTINA: That's incredible.

I mean this as the precursor to our modern-day Olympic medals.

EMMA: Indeed.

That's phenomenal.

You're holding it in your hand.

EMMA: Yes.

CHRISTINA: Wow.

CHRISTINA: So at this point in time, I am an incredibly proud Salopian.

EMMA: Excellent.

Thank you so much for showing me through it.

It's been an absolute joy, it really has.

VO: Yeah.

In 2012 the torch relay came to Much Wenlock and they named one of the mascots after the town.

VO: But were the synchronized rummage ever to make it to the Olympic Games, you would have one sure-fire medalist.

VO: And here he is, en route to the Worcestershire town of Kidderminster.

PAUL: Hello there.

IAN: Hello.

PAUL: Are you the man?

Ian Warner.

Good to see you, I'm Paul.

Hi, nice to meet you.

VO: Ian has quite an assortment on display here.

PAUL: Good things.

VO: Plus there's the stuff out the back.

Have a look at this.

Feast your eyes on this lot.

VO: A box to make one particular customer very interested.

IAN: That's the... start with him.

PAUL: My, what a lovely portrait.

A major in the Royal Tank Regiment.

"An expression of our gratitude to our liberators."

IAN: Yeah.

PAUL: Fantastic.

VO: So these are all items from the life of one soldier.

PAUL: So he was East Riding Yeomanry into Royal Tank Regiment.

Yeah.

You've got somebody's life there, haven't you?

PAUL: Birth certificate, death... birth certificate.

Yeah.

IAN: That's his war identity.

PAUL: Never seen one of those in that format.

There he is.

IAN: That's the man.

PAUL: Temporary Major Scott, A J Scott, Royal Armoured Corps, born 1908.

IAN: We've even got... these are all his buttons off his tunics and his pips and everything else in there.

These are his sort of badges... PAUL: That's the collar badges to the... IAN: These are some of his pips.

PAUL: There is a good photo.

What's he in there?

Armored scout cars.

Fantastic stuff.

IAN: He's got his miniatures.

I haven't sadly got his full set of medals.

PAUL: Oh, and there's a named medal in there as well, a territorial medal.

Those, what's he got there?

30 quid's worth of medals there, but if you had that one named medal, you'd have the lot.

IAN: Yeah, the lady who brought them in, obviously I did actually ask where the medals were and... PAUL: Never seen them?

IAN: Never saw them, sort of thing.

So... PAUL: Is it dear?

IAN: 65 quid for the lot.

No point in clowning about.

Take my paw.

No point in clowning about.

IAN: Thank you very much.

VO: Accepted with enthusiasm and no wonder.

You had me from "hello" as she said in the film.

VO: That's a very moving collection.

PAUL: All the best.

IAN: Take care, thank you.

VO: But back on the banks of the River Severn, Christina has made her way to beautiful Bewdley.

VO: For just one more shop.

CHRISTINA: Hello.

Matt: Hi.

Hello.

Hi.

You must be Christina.

I am.

Yes.

For my sins.

Matt.

Matt.

Lovely to meet you, Matt.

How are you?

I've been better, but not too bad for seeing you.

Oh why, what's wrong?

Just a bit of a heavy night last night.

Oh really?

Brilliant, so I've got you on a weak day.

MATT: A very weak day, yes.

I'll roll over now.

CHRISTINA: Do you want me to whisper?

Are you alright?

MATT: I'll be alright.

CHRISTINA: Are you sure?

Matt: Yeah.

OK.

I'll give you a shout if I see anything.

Matt: OK. CHRISTINA: OK. VO: Only £34 left now, Christina, so choose wisely.

CHRISTINA: Ooh, this is very Laidlaw.

Shall I buy some militaria?

VO: Why not?

Everybody else does.

I don't know anything about militaria.

VO: Nor does anybody else.

CHRISTINA: World War II astrocompass.

Looks very complicated, very scientific.

Shall I phone Paul and ask him?

VO: Wouldn't Matt be a better choice?

Could I have a look in one of your cabinets?

Course you can.

Would that be alright?

And I know nothing about it.

I'm guessing, all bearings white, declination... Matt: I'm guessing it's for some form of aircraft, isn't it?

Matt: Possibly a Lancaster, but it's actually Ian's, this is.

Who's Ian?

He's the chap that's stood outside.

CHRISTINA: Oh.

Matt: And that's his... CHRISTINA: Why is he stood outside?

Cuz it's sunny, isn't it?

VO: Well let's hope someone can throw some light on it.

IAN: They were used by the RAF during the war.

CHRISTINA: Yeah.

What sort of plane?

Lancaster?

Lancasters and Wellingtons, Halifax, yeah.

I was right then.

I was right, how about that?

Well done, Matt, well done.

Even hung over, you're good.

Unbelievable.

CHRISTINA: But would I make a profit on it at auction?

That's the key.

Paul is beating me hands down.

I'd love to buy a bit of militaria, because you know he loves his militaria.

I tell you what, he's putty in your hands if you look at him sort of... VO: I think we may be close.

What could that be?

IAN: In money?

CHRISTINA: Yeah.

Well, in sweets?

IAN: Much has it got?

30?

Matt: 30, yeah.

IAN: Go for half?

15.

CHRISTINA: 10 or £15?

VO: Where did she get 10 from?

CHRISTINA: No, I quite like that.

£10?

IAN: Mm-hm.

CHRISTINA: With the instructions?

Yeah, with the instructions.

Can't go wrong with that.

£10.

No, exactly.

Thank you, Ian.

Thank you, Matt.

Sorry, thank you Matt.

And also it will be useful to find your way back from the pub.

I don't spend time in the pub, unlike some of us.

VO: Well, despite her sketchy grasp, it's not a lot of money.

Now, let's take a look at what they've bought.

VO: Paul parted with just over £145 for a helmet, a naval uniform, some silver spoons, a torsion clock, a horse's hoof snuffbox and a box containing some mementos of a soldier.

VO: Whilst Christina spent £200 on a toy train, a cigar display case, a mangle, an astrocompass, and two Victorian portraits.

A mangle.

A mangled mangle, it has to be said, but it cost a tenner.

Might be worth 50, 60, 70, £80, for all I know.

CHRISTINA: He spent no money whatsoever, which frankly, when you've got so much money to spend, is rude.

Pictures, that's the one to watch.

Who knows?

It could be bad news for me or it could be what saves my bacon.

At least I've taken a risk.

You've got to take a few risks in life, haven't you?

VO: Yeah.

VO: After setting off from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, our experts are now heading north for an auction in Staffordshire at Stoke-on-Trent.

CHRISTINA: The last Blakely that sold was admittedly in a London sale room, sold for £900, and I bought two for £160.

PAUL: Well, wait and see.

VO: Well, might have been wise to have bought a pot or two, I suppose.

Quite well-known for that sort of thing round here.

This chap too, Sir Stanley Matthews, the wizard of the dribble.

PAUL: Ta-dah.

CHRISTINA: Fantastic.

Well done, pilot.

PAUL: The auction awaits, milady.

VO: ASH Auctions takes its name from the initials of the founders, so let's hear from one of them, auctioneer Lee Sherrit.

That military stuff, I believe is of one person.

Some nice, interesting, quirky little bits there.

The photograph and the rest of the items that go with it.

The portraits, interesting again, I like these.

The estimate on them, between 80 and 120 something I would imagine.

VO: Blimey.

Christina won't want to hear that.

But let's begin with one of her cannier buys, the tinplate train.

I think I bought it for £10.

You got everything for £10, didn't you?

Everything was a tenner.

Well, apart from my pictures, which I accidentally spent a fortune on.

I've got £18 bid.

That's my train!

AUCTIONEER: Now at 18, 20, where's 20?

Going to sell.

20.

£20, where's two?

At £20 it's in the room, where's two?

At £20.

CHRISTINA: Double the money.

At £20, are we done?

Come on!

VO: Great start, but it will take a bit more than that to catch Paul up.

PAUL: The fightback.

CHRISTINA: £10 profit.

The fightback?

Yeah, if I could just get something for about £600 profit.

VO: Next, it's Paul's little chick spoons.

CHRISTINA: Tweet tweet.

Is that a bid?

Tweet tweet.

Show me that high up.

Nice little set there, in the original box there, 25.

25, give me, somebody, come on where are you?

£20.

No, at 15?

15 I'm bid.

Now at 15, 16 anywhere?

Quickly.

At 15.

All over the place.

CHRISTINA: You've got bidders all over it now.

PAUL: All over the place, I like that.

Two, four, 24, 26, your turn, 28.

Oh, look at the leg, look at the leg.

VO: Hey, well caught, knee camera.

AUCTIONEER: Selling at £30 only.

You're so confident and then the leg starts going.

I can feel it.

VO: Good.

But no cigar.

And look what's next.

Christina's case.

I love this.

Was this, that woman's?

Part of her shop?

Did you buy part of her shop?

I did.

Five pounds, five, six, eight, and 10 and 12, 14, 12 on my right.

£12, 14 surely?

14 now.

16?

A man with style.

AUCTIONEER: 18?

At £16, right hand side, 18.

20, 20, 22, 22, 24, 24, 26, at £24 being sold.

Spent the last three days just, you know, messing about.

VO: Catching up very slowly.

That's not bad.

Are you scared yet?

VO: Time for Paul's navy jumper and green hat.

Did you ever go out as a teenager?

No?

We have our resident modeler modelling this.

She's tried it on, it won't fit.

CHRISTINA: Aw!

AUCTIONEER: But the hat does.

The hat fits.

Fantastic, there she is.

VO: Well I think it suits her.

She wears all sorts of stuff in this sale room.

AUCTIONEER: And at home!

25 for it somebody, 25?

20?

Bid me, tenner?

10 I'm bid.

At £10 bid, 12 anywhere?

PAUL: He selling it for a tenner, never mind that.

AUCTIONEER: £10.

It's going to be 10.

All done?

£20.

I've lost money on it.

You made a loss.

You've made a loss.

I'm going, I've had enough of this.

VO: Paul makes a loss on militaria.

Hold the front page.

I would laugh so much if my militaria made more than your militaria.

No, let's not.

VO: Go, Christina.

What is it?

An astrocompass.

Navigator's tool.

Air navigator's tool.

Oh.

PAUL: Yeah.

CHRISTINA: Is that good?

25 for it, come on where are we?

£20.

Come on.

£20.

I think you'll get 20 or 30 quid for it.

15 then somebody?

15?

15 I'm bid there at 15.

Where's 16 now?

At £15, going to, at 16, 18, 20, 22, 24.

What did I pay for this?

AUCTIONEER: 22, 22.

CHRISTINA: £10.

AUCTIONEER: I'm going to sell it.

At £22 the hammer's up, all finished.

Yours, sir, £22.

Number 107.

Amazing.

VO: Well done.

Bit of a militaria coup.

Never talk to me again, Trevanion.

My militaria made more than your militaria.

VO: Time for Paul's prize lot, a soldier's life.

I've got commission of £31, where's 32?

PAUL: Long way off.

AUCTIONEER: Should have a riot here.

32?

33.

PAUL: Should have a riot here!

AUCTIONEER: 34, 36, 38, 40, at £38, I'll sell then, at 38.

Last call.

At £38, are we done?

It's yours, sir.

Crying on the inside.

VO: Call that a riot?

Seems a modest sum for all those memories.

Now, from the sublime... CHRISTINA: Guess how much I paid for my mangle.

Well let me think, I'm just pulling figures out of the air, 80, 100, tenner?

Yeah, surprisingly enough.

£20, can I see 20?

£20?

15 for it, somebody?

15 for the mangle there, 10, take it home somebody, £10.

10 I'm bid on my right, at 10.

At £10 bid, where's 12 now?

At 10, 12, at 14.

PAUL: Tell them it's the folding version.

It's a rare folding version.

These fools know.

VO: It's all profits for Christina today.

Small ones, anyway.

Time for Paul's equally attractive hoof.

What shall we say?

50, 40, 30?

AUCTIONEER: 34 is on commission.

PAUL: 34.

CHRISTINA: 80.

£80.

If it doesn't make £80.

PAUL: I'm out of it.

I'm going to sell.

No I'm not.

36 standing.

38.

38, 40 got a riot now, 30, 40.

PAUL: It's another riot.

CHRISTINA: It's a riot.

Call the police.

AUCTIONEER: At £38, the hammer's up.

£38, there he is.

VO: Well, it's a profit at least.

A bit lame, though.

Now, for his bargain clock.

I've got £25 commission bid straight in.

It's on sale, I'm going to give it 30 now.

At £25.

PAUL: He's going to sell it at 25 quid.

It's my first piece of profit of the day.

At £25.

That's why I bought it.

VO: His little stroll off-piste paid off.

I can see you bought that with soul.

I'm not proud of that.

VO: But Christina is very proud of these Alexander Blakely portraits.

Are they in the right auction, though?

Moment of truth.

Don't look.

I can't watch.

I can't watch.

I can't hear anything.

On sale from the word go, ladies and gents, £40.

I don't believe it.

At four... now we can see, 50, 60, 70, 70.

It's in the room at £70.

They've got to be worth more than this surely.

CHRISTINA: Oh yes!

At £70.

I'm going to sell them.

At £70.

80 surely?

At £70, this is for nothing.

Thought that would go for a lot more than that.

£70.

VO: Yep, she needs a hug after that.

Had the auction been online I think they would have done a lot better.

My heart is actually broken.

Do you think there is a cake big enough in the world to fix your heart?

No.

Let's try and find it anyway.

Let's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We could try.

A big cake.

Come on.

VO: Christina started out with £224.54 and made, after paying auction costs, a loss of £78.64, leaving her with £145.90 to spend next time.

Bad luck.

VO: While Paul began with £780.34 and after paying auction costs made a loss of £29.38.

So he's the winner today and still leads with £750.96.

Give me the keys and don't talk to me.

CHRISTINA: This is all going very wrong.

PAUL: Wait a minute.

CHRISTINA: Sorry.

PAUL: Wait a minute.

CHRISTINA: Bye!

Bye!

Christina!

VO: Next on Antiques Road Trip: an alarm.

What have I done?

VO: And several surprises.

Yes!

I'm winning.

I'm winning.

Is this what it feels like?

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