A SET of Victorian lawn-mowing shoes which were worn by shire horses and originally come from South Lakeland are expected to fetch up to £2,000 when they are auctioned by Christie's.

The four shoes, believed to have belonged to the Hornyold-Strickland family of Sizergh Castle, are among 800 possessions worth around £1 million to be sold on Monday.

Antiques dealer Christopher Gibbs, who designed the sets for the 1968 Rolling Stones film Performance, is holding the auction at his Oxfordshire retreat The Manor House, at Clifton Hampden.

Angela Hornyold-Strickland was unaware of the shoes ever being at Sizergh Castle, but told the Gazette: "A house like this would have had to mow the lawns with horses, but it certainly wasn't done during the war because we had goats, I think, to eat the grass then."

Mrs Hornyold-Strickland expressed surprise at the amount the shoes are expected to fetch when they go under the hammer, adding: "It's extraordinary, because they are the sort of thing that would have sold for a couple of ha'penny in those days.

But I suppose it's the rarity value."

Gibbs, a legendary figure in interior decorating circles, is well-known for the "spare country house" look.

A Christie's spokesman said: "If Christopher Gibbs has a personal theory of interior decoration, it is a rare attribute that anchors a house to its beginnings."

His sense of history is displayed in his personal collection at the Manor House, Clifton Hampden, which boasts numerous momentos of the past, such as the shire-horse shoes which would have protected the lawns from heavy hoof marks.