Newspaper Article – Paid £21 to push over pile

Paid £21 to push over pile

Mr L. D. Brown’s wife authorised him to have the honour of pushing over the £750 penny pile at the Stortford Lodge Hotel this morning.

He won the honour but bid £21 – so he added the extra £1 from his own picket [pocket].

Mr Brown sad he and his wife decided to bid for the honour on behalf of Cornwall Park Stores Ltd, the shop they jointly own.

They decided their limit was £20. But Mr Brown put in the final bid to make it £21 and added the money out of his own pocket.

The pile consisted of about £750 worth of pennies, topped with £100 worth of silver.

The money was gathered from the Albert, Carlton Club, Fernhill, Grand, Hastings, Eardisley (Havelock North), Mayfair, Pacific and Stortford Lodge Hotels and built up by the head barman Mr Noel Costard [Cosford].

Hastings auctioneer Mr Gordon Walker controlled the bidding. The first bid was for £10. It then went up by £1 or [part of article missing] £2 bids to the final price of £21. A hydraulic jack had been placed under the pile, weighing at least a ton. Mr Brown put the handle in and pumped until the pennies cascaded on to a piece of canvas just before closing time, midday.

The pile will be counted and the proceeds plus the £21 bid will go towards the Hastings Lions Club project of financing a day care centre for the Hastings branch of the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society.

A find among the pennies

When Hastings Lions Club members were sorting through the pennies pushed over in the penny pile at the Stortford Lodge Hotel this morning a 1956 strapless penny was found.

Its market value according to members is £9.

The name of the finder: Bob Fortune.

Photo caption – Mr L.D. Brown, slightly stooped, watches as £750 worth of pennies cascades to the floor of the Stortford Lodge Hotel this morning a few minutes after he bid £21 for the honour of pushing the pile to the floor. On his right, side on to the camera, is Mr M. Elliott, president of the Lions Club, who organised the pile.