An auction with a difference took place in Luddenden nearly 100 years ago, when the entire contents of a cottage were sold to crowds who thronged the hillside. Among other highly unusual items bid for were two live parrots, a pair of stuffed pigeons, a bust of Prime Minister William Gladstone and a Russian-made coffin containing a doll!

The goods belonged to an eccentric collector, Thomas Longbottom (known more colourfully as "Tommy o' t' Salt Pie"), who died at the age of 77 years in 1905, having worked at Booth paper mills for more than half a century.

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