RARE reminders of a golden age of stage entertainment in Ulverston are among items being sold in a two-day sale at Aborfield in Berkshire.

Included in the sale being held today and tomorrow by Loddon Auctions is a collection of nine concert posters from the Victoria Concert Hall dated from 1865 to 1869.

Most of them feature performances by the English Opera Company and are expected to sell for a modest £60 to £80.

Robert Casson was manager at the concert hall and the performers mentioned on the posters include Madame Florence Lancia, Edmund Rosenthall and Jenny Baur.

Florence Lancia was a leading English soprano singer who lived from 1840 to 1905.

She toured the country as director of the Grand English Opera Company.

The Mannex 1882 Directory of Furness and Cartmel noted: “The Victoria Concert Hall, attached to the Queen’s Hotel, is capable of accommodating 800 persons. It is also used for dramatic performances.”

The Queen’s Hotel was on the top corner of King Street and later became a Chinese restaurant.

It is likely that the entrance to the concert hall was round the corner in Mill Street.

The same sale has a group of vintage beer bottle labels from breweries in both Ulverston and Barrow.

A group of four labels from the former Hartleys brewery in Ulverston are expected to sell for £20 to £40. They are for pale ale, brown ale and two for extra strong ale.

There are four pairs of Barrow labels being offered from Thompson’s. Each pair is expected to make £20 to £40.

The labels feature nut brown ale, pale ale, best bitter and Stingo.

A watercolour of the Barrow liner Oriana is included in the Friday, May 12, sale by Dee, Atkinson & Harrison at Driffield in East Yorkshire.

The painting is the work of K. Glen and is expected to sell for £60 to £80.

The liner was launched on November 3 in 1959 by Princess Alexandra.

It was withdrawn from service in 1986 and after being damaged in a storm off China, was scrapped in 2005.