OVER 600 pieces from Bradford College’s past, from opthalmic equipment dating back almost 100 years to solar panels used to teach students, went under the hammer today.

In the past few years many of the college’s departments have been moved from older buildings to the David Hockney Building and the Advanced Technology Centre.

While the college has been clearing out some of its old buildings and classrooms it has uncovered a vast amount of items, including ophthalmic, plumbing and heating, laboratory and hair and beauty equipment.

These, along with more mundane items such as desks and furniture, were put up for sale today by Bradford auction house Eddisons through an online auction to raise money for the college’s expansion.

Some of the objects date back almost 100 years.

More recent items being auctioned include demonstration units that were used to teach pupils how to install and fix solar panels, microscopes used in college labs and motorised dispensing tools.

Other lab items being sold include thermometers, transformers and a Russian wave demonstration apparatus.

However other items date back much further, including antique oak steps, vintage spectrometers, hand operated lathes, test tubes and an antique Griffin and George barometer.

Ophthalmology equipment, included vast amounts of lenses used to test vision, dating back to the 1920s are some of the more quirky items in the auction.

The college has run ophthalmic and dispensing courses for over 65 years. With state of the art tools now making many of the older equipment redundant, dozens of items from the department are included in the auction.

Also under the hammer is office furniture and a full canteen of cookers, lab stations, and catering equipment.

The items up for sale were on show in the college’s Appleton Science Building yesterday for buyers to peruse before the online auction comes to an end today.

Jason Pinder, director of machinery and business assets at Eddisons, said: “We didn’t expect to find such a treasure trove of unusual items when we went into the old college building to value and catalogue everything.

“There were some real curiosities in there, from a set of antique oak library steps, to ophthalmic instruments and lenses that appeared to date back to the 1920s or 30s.

“In fact though, the college has such a long and proud history as a centre of education in Bradford, dating back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in the early part of the 19th century, perhaps it’s not that surprising that so may remnants of its past still survive.

“The auction will raise valuable funds for Bradford College as it continues its relocation to its state of the art new campus that has become one of the symbols of the city’s regeneration.”

Tony Hirst, associate director, said: “We’ve had quite a lot of interest in the auction, and the items attracting the interest have been a mix of everything on offer.”

After the move to the new buildings, some of the college’s old buildings have been sold, or declared surplus to requirements.

Gavin Pattison, head of estates and facilities, said: “Bradford College is committed to providing high quality facilities and resources for students and staff and so a huge range of new building, upgrading and refurbishment has taken place in recent years.

“Our new £50 David Hockney Building was kitted out with all new furniture and state-of-the-art equipment and we are constantly updating and refreshing our facilities and resources across our other buildings, which is why we were left with this redundant and out-dated equipment.”

To view the items in the auction, visit eddisons.com/online.