Could this be Britain’s biggest-ever barn-find collection to head to auction? Nestled deep within the Gloucestershire countryside lies a trove of between 170 and 200 cars acquired over many years and in various stages of dustiness and crustiness – and they’re all due to go under the hammer in June 2025.
I believe the original idea was to start a museum, but he’s now decided to sell the property
FM Hutchings Commercial Auctioneers and Tewkesbury Auction Centre announced the sale on April 13, and could only watch in shock as its Facebook metrics went through the roof – especially when the previous Facebook post garnered a dozen likes for a furniture sale. “Currently 1.4m people have seen it in the past 24 hours,” says auctioneer Finley Hutchings.
Finley says details about how and when the collection came about are sketchy, as are the total number of cars and what’s lurking here and there. “I believe the original idea was to start a museum, but the owner has now decided to sell the property,” he says. “The collection’s got to be sold – he can’t spend the money to move them all, so it’s time to let them go.”
The images you see here are just what were taken in a quick look around by the auctioneers, although the collection has been filmed by urban explorers on YouTube several times. The cars are largely British and German fare, from a Triumph TR7 FHC and several MGs, to Mercedes-Benz R107 SLs and Volkswagen Golf Cabriolets.
There are also several Land Rovers and Range Rovers of various ages, several Jaguars, a Bentley Turbo R and an Aston Martin DBS – plus a plethora of parts, including Jaguar E-type bonnets. There’s also a whole host of memorabilia, including several painted signs. More esoteric fare lies among the collection as well, including an Alfa Romeo Spider and several American cars of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, and at least a dozen Peugeot 205s.
“There are some rare pieces in there,” Finley says. We’ve spotted a rare original UK-market RHD 1959 Chevrolet Impala four-door, with other interesting oddities spied lurking under covers.
One of the barns succumbed to fire several years ago, and the remnants of the cars that were caught up in it are still there. “I believe there’s a Porsche 911 chassis there, and a Ferrari,” Finlay says. Studying various urban-exploration videos on YouTube indicates that the 911 is what’s left of an impact-bumper Targa, and the Ferrari is – or at least was – a 328.
“There’s a wide spectrum of stuff, an original Fiat 500, and Ford Sierra XR4x4 – that’s a nice thing,” Finley says. “We’ve seen other car collections, but never quite to this extent. We’ve publicised it as 170 cars because that’s what we know, but we believe there could be more than 200, which may be the biggest barn find in the country. We won’t know for definite until we pull them all out.”
Despite the dilapidated nature of most of the cars, V5 registration certificates do exist for a good proportion of them. “We have about ten or 15 folders full of V5s, but we’ve not gone car to car and attributed the right V5 to each vehicle yet,” Finley says. It’s believed most of the cars will be sold without a pre-sale estimate.
We’re told professional photographs of each lot will be taken over the coming weeks. The barn-find auction is due to take place on Saturday June 28, 2025 and will be conducted on site in South Gloucestershire. More details can be found by calling +44 (0)7779 088529.
