TREASURED items from an east Devon-based museum will be sold at auction this week.

Richard Edmonds Auctions, Europe's largest auctioneer of automobilia, has the exclusive rights to sell more than 300 lots from Motoring Memories in Colyford.

The museum and its collection, which were build up over a period of 30 years by a private enthusiast, drew visitors to the Colyford attraction. But advancing age forced its closure in 2011.

Motoring Memories housed hundreds of items of automobilia and petroliana, predominantly from the 1920s and 1930s. These include vintage petrol pumps, advertising materials and packaging, rare enamel signs and Sid’s Motor Works – a replica of a 1930s commercial garage.

Richard Edmonds said: “This is a real gem of a sale.

"For several years, collectors have been asking when the contents of the Sid’s Motor Works exhibit will be going up for auction. They won’t be disappointed.

"I’ve been through the exhibit in detail and come across so many items I’ve never seen before in all my years in the trade, including many which have never been taken out of their original packaging.”

The building was once a working petrol station. One of its customers is reputed to have been T.E Lawrence, the famed Lawrence of Arabia.

One item being sold from another private collection is an enamel sign six feet square advertising Stepney Tyres, the company that invented the concept of the spare wheel in 1904. Previously cars were not manufactured with a spare wheel. A ‘stepney’ is still today the everyday name for a spare wheel in India, Bangladesh, Malta and Brazil, where it is called an ‘estepe’.

The auction will take place at Allington, just outside Chippenham from today (22) until Saturday.