ANTIQUE silverware worth thousands of pounds is up for grabs in a giveaway by Clitheroe Town Council.

The council is offering 14 trophies and salvers worth from £300 to £3,000 each to schools and organisations in Clitheroe -- for free.

The trophies and salvers are various shapes and sizes and most date to the late 19th century.

Town councillors decided the silverware had become too expensive to insure and maintain after a valuation by Sotheby's revealed their sale value had dropped.

Silverware experts from Sotheby's said there was a glut of Victorian silverware in the antiques market and items were currently fetching only 20 per cent of their replacement value.

So councillors have decided to give away the trophies and salvers, worth more than £11,000 in total.

Town clerk John Wells said: "The trophies are solid silver and some are quite large. We asked experts at Sotheby's for advice on what to do with them, because they were costing a lot of money in insurance and cleaning bills.

"Councillors don't want to sell them. These trophies have been gifted to the council over the years and are a part of the town's history.

"If any organisation would like to acquire one of the trophies or salvers I would like to hear from them."

Councillor John McGowan, who is a former Clitheroe Mayor, said he would fight to prevent the silverware ever being sold. And he has called for legal plans to be drawn up preventing the future sale of them, should their sale value increase.

He said: "The silverware is part of the town's history and has been valued much more highly in the past. Giving them to local groups is a good idea.

"That way they will still be connected to the town council, be put to good use and enjoyed by local people."

If you represent a Clitheroe organisation and could make use of a trophy or salver, contact John Wells on 01200 424722.

A spokesman for Sotheby's said: "This type of presentation silverware is extremely difficult to sell, a great amount having been made in the Victorian and early 20th Century periods. Unfortunately it usually sells for low values."