A JEWELLERY workshop 'frozen in time' is for sale on the outskirts of Ledbury.

The former premises of A E Cook and Sons Ltd, on the Bromyard Road, contains all the machinery and equipment needed to make jewellery and precision equipment, much of it dating from the 1920s.

All the contents of the workshop are for sale by tender. The building itself and 2.65 acres of land will be auctioned in Ledbury later this month.

A E Cook and Sons Ltd moved to Ledbury from Birmingham in the 1950s, following the death of the company founder. His son moved all the machinery and equipment into the new building ready to be used but never ran it commercially. The Birmingham workshop had been used to manufacture bomb components in the Second World War.

The son recently died and the executors have decreed that the land and contents should be sold, with the proceeds going to a charity, as yet unspecified.

"He set it up as a workshop and it's really like the Marie Celeste in there," said Chris Maulkin, auctioneer at John Goodwin estate agents in Ledbury.

"It really is fascinating, there's an amazing range of equipment. The workshop itself is different, it's something we don't normally deal with."

While demand for the land has been high, only a few calls have been received about the equipment.

"It's fairly specialised stuff and some of it's very dated," said Mr Maulkin.

"But development land round Ledbury is like gold dust."

The site is expected to sell for somewhere in the region of £350,000.

For more information about the sale, visit www.johngoodwin.co.uk or call 01531 634648.