Informal snapshots of the Beatles have gone under the hammer at an auction in Dorset.

The black and white images are thought to have been captured in the ‘mid-1960s’ when the band were on a trip to Bridport.

The five prints, two of which are duplicated, sold at Duke’s Grove Auctions in Dorchester for £460 – four times more than expected.

The photographs were given to the vendor’s mother by the owner of the Askers Road House Hotel where the Fab Four were staying. The hotel owner is pictured in one of the images.

The vendor, who declined to be named, remembers the excitement surrounding the band’s visit: ‘I recall my mother being particularly excited one day. She was working in a solicitor’s office and the hotel owner arrived to tell her that the Beatles were planning to stay at the hotel.

‘It was all very hush-hush? The next thing I knew, my mother arrived home with these photographs? I was a big fan in those days.’

A spokeswoman for the auctioneers told us that the pictures generated ‘a lot of interest’, including from dealers in Liverpool.

Pictures: Courtesy Duke’s Grove Auctions

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