Historic Black Country fireman's helmets set to go under the hammer at Stourbridge's Fieldings Auctioneers

Fieldings Auctioneers have a selection of early 20th century helmets from across the region at auction this Saturday (July 1), with the collection – which also includes dozens of historic fire marks – expected to go for tens of thousands of pounds.

Antiques expert Mark Hannam, a valuer and auctioneer at Fieldings, said there has been a lot of interest shown in some of the rarer officer’s helmets.

Mark said: “We have some officer’s helmets which were made of nickel rather than the usual brass, so we expect them to fetch up to around £800, but we have some more affordable ones that would be around £150 to £200.”

The collection includes helmets from Birmingham Fire Brigade, a 1938 Dudley Fire Brigade helmet, and even some from Marsh and Baxter, the Brierley Hill butchers (pictured below), which had their own brigade on site in case of a fire.

Mark added: “It is such a unique collection and something we would only see once in three or four years here.

“We don’t know what the results will be, but there has been a lot of interest from as far away as London and the West Country, but we still think there is a good local connection, especially with the Brierley Hill helmets.

“There is also a collection of some very unique fire marks which come in lead, copper and tin. I sold one about 12 years ago which fetched £9,000 at auction, but I doubt the ones on Saturday will be reaching that figure.”

The sale will get underway at the Mill Race Lane auction house at 10am, with the helmets going under the hammer from 11.