Victorian shipwreck heroine's shawl for auction

A shawl said to have belonged to Victorian heroine Grace Darling is going up for auction.

On 7 September 1838, the then-22-year-old rowed out in a storm with her father to help nine survivors of the SS Forfarshire, which sank off the coast of Northumberland near the Farne Islands.

Their bravery captured the public imagination and Miss Darling was celebrated across Britain as a symbol of courage and selflessness.

Fred Wyrley-Birch, director at Newcastle's Anderson and Garland auction house, which is selling the piece, said the shawl was "a rare opportunity for someone to own a tangible link to one of Britain's best-loved heroines."

Miss Darling and her father William Darling, who was the keeper of Longstone Lighthouse, rescued the men during a storm using a small fishing boat, known as a coble.

Her role in the rescue was picked up by the press and she became a national celebrity, receiving thank you gifts from the public and even Queen Victoria.

The shawl, of buff-coloured cloth embroidered in silk with shells and scrolls, could possibly be a thank you gift or her own work, Mr Wyrely-Birch explained.

"I suspect it is either a gift from someone who has gone, 'ah what a canny lass, she'll be cold all the way up there in the North Sea, I'll send her a shawl', or it's even a possibility that it is her own work," he said.

"It is not a fine piece of cloth, although the silk work is very good and fine, it is the sort of thing you would expect to find in that period and situation - it is a really nice piece."

The shawl, which measures 345cm (136in) long and 117cm (46in) deep, carries an estimate of £200 to £500 and is expected to attract strong interest from collectors.

Accompanied by a letter of provenance, the shawl has entered the auction house through a private client whose father's guardian owned a printing business.

The typed note, addressed to Ernest William Greenwood, publisher of Greenwood Bros Printers Ltd, South Shields, makes reference to the shawl as having belonged to Grace Darling.

The letter explains it had passed through the estate of George Barclay and was being held by Greenwood as collateral against a book to be published.

"It's neither not got published or made any money and so they retained it as a bad debt, and the letter goes into those details," said Mr Wyrley-Birch.

"The shawl is lovely quality, find me another one, who's to say what it [the shawl] is worth?"

The Collectors' Auction takes place on Thursday 23 October at 10:00 BST at Anderson and Garland, Newcastle.

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