'Treasured' Staffordshire bear fetches £1,100 at auction

A teddy that was treasured by its owner for 99 years has sold at auction for £1,100, more than 10 times its estimate.

Bear was given to Ida Goring by her father in 1916 and she kept it until she died in 2015, aged 101.

Her daughter Jenny Pickett plans to use the auction money to help pay for a headstone for her brother David Goring.

Bear's new owner Angela Underhill said the toy would be "loved forever" alongside her own childhood teddy.

Mrs Goring's father Joe Webb received Bear from a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, after being "invalided out" of World War One with water on the brain.

Ms Underhill, 42, from Chester, said the story had "resonated" with her.

She has multiple sclerosis, and was born with fluid on the brain, the same issue Mrs Goring's father had.

"I just had to have Bear," she said.

"Bear's been through two real wars and, because of my MS, I've been through the wars with my own teddy Ermentrude by my side.

"He was given to me 57 years ago by my father when I was two weeks old.

"The two bears go together and will spend the rest of their days together."

Ms Pickett, 62, a dinner lady from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, said she was "stunned" by the amount raised by the sale at Hanson's Auctioneers in Derby.

The auctioneers had listed Bear with a guide price of between £70 and £100.

"When I took the bear on the bus to be valued at Hansons I would have been happy with £50," Ms Pickett said.

"It wasn't about the money. It was about finding an owner for Bear who would love him as much as mum did."

She previously said the money from his sale would go towards a headstone for Mr Goring, who died aged 67 in 2016.

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.