Abbey items auctioned for £91,000

Items from an abbey being vacated by an order of nuns have fetched £91,000 at auction.

The Benedictine nuns at Stanbrook Abbey, Worcestershire, are getting ready to move to a new purpose-built convent in Wass, North Yorkshire.

The most valuable item was a collection of pressed flora and fauna given to the abbey in 1899. It sold for £6,240.

The nuns have said that due to dwindling numbers the only way for their order to survive is to move.

French Revolution

A spokesman for Bonhams, which organised the auction, said it was rare to find furniture and fittings from such a historically significant building.

Another popular item included a brass bound campaign chest from the Crimean War which raised £2,430.

The religious order fled to Britain from France, where its members had been imprisoned during the Revolution.

They have been based at Stanbrook for 170 years.