Historical Lincolnshire postcard collection sells for £22,000

Some of the cards are hand-tinted, such as this view of a Skegness concert party

A collection of more than 16,000 postcards depicting life in Lincolnshire dating back to Victorian times has sold for nearly £22,000.

The cards belonged to the late David Robinson, who was a local historian, writer and lecturer.

Louth-based auctioneers John Taylors said there had been a huge interest in the collection.

James Laverack, from the firm, said the most expensive lot, depicting Kesteven villages, sold for £2,500.

"Another set of 1,000 postcards of Lincolnshire villages - an A-Z index - made £2,050," he said.

Many of the postcards show news events such as this view of flooding in Louth in May 1920

The collection also included industrial scenes like this view of Grimsby Docks

The collection, which was divided up into 40 lots each containing roughly 150 to 1,000 postcards featuring a particular place or subject matter, was expected to sell for between £15,000 and £20,000.

They were said to be the largest collection of historical Lincolnshire images ever put up for sale.

Jean Howard, who was a friend of Mr Robinson, and responsible for cataloguing the collection, said she was pleased people valued them.

"I don't think there will ever be another person who will spend the thick end of 70 years collecting such an amazing selection," she said.

She added that there were also some of the lots which made "a surprising amount of money", including 220 cards depicting Scunthorpe and Brigg, which sold for £920.

Mr Robinson, who was also the former editor of the Lincolnshire Life magazine, died in June aged 89.

Annual events like the Lincoln Fair held in Cornhill are shown

This Victorian card depicts a race meeting in Lincoln