SOME early pieces of Barrow sporting history are being sold in Birmingham later this month.

The Sporting Memorys sale on February 22 expects £100 to £120 for a programme from the Walsall against Barrow AFC soccer match which was played on October 8 in 1932.

The same sale has an interesting group of items related to Barrow's first visit to Wembley for the Rugby League Challenge Cup final.

Bidding is expected to reach £150 to £200 for a copy of the programme for the final where Salford narrowly defeated Barrow on May 7 in 1938.

There is also a News Chronicle community song sheet, a four-page supplement from the North West Daily Mail and a selection of picture of the Salford players.

Bidding reached £2,400 for a police motorcycle which patrolled the county’s roads back in the 1960s.

The BSA model C15 GP police motorcycle, with the registration number MRM 629F, was offered by Charterhouse Auctioneers, at Shepton Mallet.

It was first purchased by what would then be the Cumberland and Westmorland force and first registered on September 15 in 1967.

The Carlisle sale on Wednesday, February 15, by Thomson Roddick has a poster from the Second World War which was printed for Ulverston Urban District Council.

It describes the effects and treatment required for a variety of poison gases - including phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas. The poster should make £15 to £20.

Among Ebay items currently being offered is a group of six chairs in mahogany by Barrow maker H. Cooke and Sons.

The firm had its showrooms on Abbey Road, close to the Evening Mail offices.

A London seller wants £450 for the chairs.

A Nottingham seller hopes for £77.50 for a helmet plate, with a blackened finish for night duty, issued by the old Borough of Barrow Police.

Dozens of Furness volunteers went to South Africa with local regiment The King's Own to fight the Boers at the end of the 19th Century.

They would have been presented with a silver Queen's South Africa Medal with bars on the ribbon to show which battles they had taken part in.

Such medals sell in the £100 to £200 range, depending on the rarity of the bars, and an example to the a Pte Chadwick of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment is being sold in the Tuesday, February 14, sale at Royal Tunbridge Wells by C and T Auctioneers.

Furness soldiers were also presented with an inscribed gold pocket watch. Examples are seldom seen and have sold for more than £600.