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The “never-before-seen” court documents relating the Great Train Robbery are up for sale after being discovered in a cellar ten miles from the site of the infamous 1960s heist.
A woman sorting through her late husband’s belongings stumbled across the papers, newspaper cuttings, and hand-drawn courtroom plans at her Buckinghamshire home.
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Irita Marriot Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd say the woman only realised they related to the Great Train Robbery – one of Britain’s most famous crimes – when she took them to be valued.
The infamous 1963 holdup saw 15 masked men and two insider accomplices make off with £2.6 million (equivalent to more than £60 million in today’s money) after tampering with signal lights and boarding a Royal Mail train near Cheddington, Bucks.
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The bulk of the stolen money has never been recovered and the gang did not use any firearms, though the train driver was beaten over the head with a metal bar and suffered serious head injuries.
The documents for sale include correspondence, newspaper cuttings, and hand-drawn court room plans compiled by Colonel J. Owen-Jones, the Under Sheriff of Buckinghamshire at the time.
Also included are letters from the Under Sheriff of Cheshire to Colonel Owen-Jones asking for his advice on The Moore Murders trial, which was due to start in 1966.
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The collection of recently discovered documents is up for sale until September 11 at the Melbourne Assembly Rooms in Derbyshire and online.
In 2013 a collection of photos, newspaper clippings, and posters put together by DC John Bailey, the first detective on the scene of the infamous train heist, were sold at auction for £13,000.
Other documentation exists in the likes of the British Museum, but these new papers have never been on the market before, according to the auctioneers.
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Irita Marriott, owner of Irita Marriott Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd, said: “The fact that this collection has never been seen before makes it really exciting, even the seller had no idea that it existed!
“All eyes were on Aylesbury during ‘The Great Train Robbery’ trial and this gives us an insight into the unseen side of the planning that went into holding such a high profile event in such a small town.”
