Manuscripts and family memorabilia belonging to Ottery’s ‘most famous son’ have sold for £35,000.

Some 56 items belonging to poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge went up for auction today (March 14) in Exeter.

Auctioneers Bearnes, Hampton and Littlewood were expecting the lots to draw worldwide attention ahead of today’s auction.

The items were put up for sale by his great-great-great granddaughter and included a mixture of ceramics, art, furniture and manuscripts.

Among the highest bids was a two page signed letter from the writer to his niece Fanny Price, selling for £4,000.

The letter, which is undated but believed to have been delivered by a messenger in 1825 - nine years before his death, was signed ‘God bless you - your affectionate uncle’.

One lucky bidder paid £3,200 to secure a gold and hair plait brooch belonging to the poet’s granddaughter Christabel Rose Coleridge.

Other items also going under the hammer was a creamware wine cooler and an early 19th mahogany and inlaid secretaire chest.

Coleridge was born in 1772 in the School House, Ottery. His father, John, was the vicar of the parish and master of the King’s grammar school.

Read more in this week’s Ottery Herald.