The list of auction records that follows has been compiled from three sources, auctioneers’ handbooks, newspaper adverts and sale catalogues.

The lists give, where possible, the date of the auction, the sale venue, a description of the property, the auction price, newspaper references to the auction and references to auction sale catalogues held by the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. Some additional information such as the name of the person responsible for the instruction to Peacocks to undertake the auction, the names of tenants and the rental value of the property is also provided where known.

The amount of information regarding the description of the auctions varies according to the sources available, and the amount of detail provided by those sources. In some cases it has only been possible to construct quite general descriptions. The convention for the order of descriptions is: name of town or village (places outside Bedfordshire have the county in brackets following the place name); name of property; address or description of location; other descriptive details such as type of property; size of property.

As the auctioneers’ handbooks listed the price at auction for each lot, which could be made up of more than one item of property, the auction records have generally been recorded to mirror the lots not individual properties.

Auctioneers’ handbooks

The auctioneers’ handbooks were transcribed by the author over a period of a year between 2000 and 2001. At that time the handbooks were located at the Wilson Peacock offices at 58 St Loyes Street, Bedford, where they had been stored in the strong room since the office opened in 1964. The collection was added to until 1988. By 2014 the handbooks were no longer to be found at the offices, and as no trace of their whereabouts is known, they are now considered to be lost.

The early handbooks included a variety of hard-covered notebooks into which were pasted advertisements or auction catalogues identifying the individual lots to be sold. Additional handwritten notes including the sale price and, where known, the purchaser's name were added by the auctioneer at the time of the sale.