Postcards showing Staffordshire's history sell for £4,000

Specialist Rob French catalogued the collection which included postcards of collieries and royal visits

A collection of hundreds of postcards showing life in a county about a century ago have sold at auction for £4,000.

Three albums of 761 cards feature places across Staffordshire and include royal visits to the area.

The cards document former collieries as well as a military camp in Rugeley during World War One.

A phone bidder secured the collection after a "big battle" over the cards, auctioneer Richard Winterton said.

The collection, offered as one lot, also contained a souvenir of King Edward VII's visit to Stafford in 1907 and the proclamation of King George V in Hednesford in 1910.

They were sold on Monday in Lichfield by Richard Winterton Auctioneers.

"It came down to a big battle between bidders in the room and on the telephone, with the phone bidder securing the collection," Mr Winterton said.

Industry including coal mining is featured on some of the cards