£35,000 sideboard left in barn

The sideboard is typical of the elaborate style Pugin did for others

A farming couple have told of their surprise that their sideboard left for 20 years in a barn is expected to fetch £35,000 at auction.

Brian and Louise Corfield inherited the rare Gothic piece, which was made from a designer who helped draw up the Houses of Parliament.

The ornate carved sideboard cost just £6 when it was was bought by Mr Corfield's great-aunt in 1931.

It was only after a table designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was sold by another mid Wales farmer for £180,000 that value of their own furniture dawned on them.

The Corfields, from Montgomery, were left the sideboard by Mr Cornfield's mother.

For a long time after the sideboard had been left to my husband, nobody wanted it and it was left in the barn Louise Corfield, owner

Mrs Corfield said: "I went to have a nose at Halls' Shrewsbury salesroom when I heard that the table was for sale.

"It was only then that I realised the sideboard's potential because it has the same carvings.

"I told the auctioneer, Jeremy Lamond, that we had a sideboard to go with the table and at first I don't think he believed me.

"But he then came to the farm and confirmed our opinion.

"If it wasn't for the sale of the table we wouldn't have known the sideboard was linked to Pugin.

Pugin saw Parliament burn down in 1834 and helped redesign it

"For a long time after the sideboard had been left to my husband, nobody wanted it and it was left in the barn."

The sideboard was commissioned for the dining room at Leighton Hall, near Welshpool, in the 1850s.

But it was then discarded in a barn for two decades before being left to Mr Corfield's mother.

Mr Corfield added: "Nobody in the family wanted it because at nine feet wide it was too big for their homes.

"It ended up in a barn in the Welshpool area for 20 years before my mother took the piece when she got married and came to live at this farm.

"We were given the piece when we took over the farm in 1991."

The sideboard will be sold at Welsh Bridge in Shrewsbury on 24 September.