BOB Gray has been collecting items relating to his hometown for more than half a century.
He has saved pieces from the scrapheap and from the skip which are now recognised as irreplaceable.
The Wrexham businessman has been collecting since he was a teenager and most of the items were acquired through his work in the electrical trade.
Now, after 50 years in which he accumulated a warehouse full, he has decided that it is time to sell his collection.
It will be offered in an unprecedented single-vendor sale at Wingetts auction house next month.
Mr Gray, 78, said: “We were taking things like old gas lamps out of houses, replacing them with electrical fittings.
“They would have been thrown away but I decided to keep some of them.
“I began collecting other things, electrical items and other interesting pieces and we would do talks at schools and WI meetings.
“I began collecting the ‘breweriana’ after I bought the old Cambrian Brewery.
“There were empty breweries all over Wrexham then and nobody wanted them.”
Among the items for sale are the original signs from the Wrexham Lager Brewery which were saved when the bulldozers moved in.
There are large cooper’s barrels rescued from the Border Breweries and many other brewery-related lots.
One of the rarest pieces, expected to fetch more than £500 on its own, is an original slate Soames’ Ale sign.
There are also enamel and other advertising signs from Wrexham businesses of days gone by, a strongbox bearing the seals of the old Midland bank and a wealth of extraordinary artefacts.
“You do have to let go sometime, though I have kept some of it,” Mr Gray admits.
“Wrexham Museum have already had their pick but the museum can only store so much.
“I have a wonderful collection of kettles and flat irons, which I would like to go to specialist societies, but I’d like some things to go to other collectors who will appreciate them.”
The items will be sold at Wingetts’ saleroom in Holt Street, Wrexham, on December 7.
Auctioneer Dyfed Griffiths said: “It is an eclectic mix of Wrexham-related memorabilia and interesting artefacts.
“There are military pieces, such as a Second World War air raid siren and a baby’s gas mask.
“There are local tradesmen’s signs, a spotlight from a fire engine, clog making equipment, automatons – all manner of interesting and unusual items.
“The breweriana in the collection is particularly interesting and some of the pieces are exceptionally rare or even one-offs.”
The sale is expected to attract both collectors and local historians.
Wingetts senior auctioneer Richard Hughes added: “If it wasn’t for Bob Gray a lot of these items, which weren’t considered worth saving in their day but are now regarded as important parts of our history, would have been lost.
“Mr Gray has been very foresighted in his collecting.”