‘The Times has been moving its picture archive and these previously unseen photographs capturing the moment when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile were found, on their original glass plates, under a stack of less significant images,’ stated The Times on Saturday.

‘It’s amazing what you can find when you have a good clear-out.’

Bannister broke the record on an Oxford running track on 6 May 1954, in 3min 59.4 seconds.

How The Times reported the discovery of the glass plates