Selby Town Council has rescued three historic shields from a famous British submarine from being sold off.

Nobody knew that Selby District Council had the 68-year-old ships’ badges, which were put up for sale at an auction in Scunthorpe today along with the other contents of the housing maintenance depot, which industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management were instructed to clear.

But after reading an article in The Press, councillors, who had not heard of the find, came forward to stop the sale. Coun Steve Shaw-Wright, of Selby Town Council, said they first knew of the items when residents began complaining.

“There had been no report at all to the town council or the district council.

“When it appeared in The Press it was a surprise and shock. We don’t have that many artefacts in Selby, but it has a history of shipbuilding so anything maritime is most welcome in Selby.”

The badges are from the HMS Sturgeon, a long-range patrol submarine, which made the first successful torpedo attack of the Second World War and was later involved in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck. The shields were presented to the former Selby Rural District Council and the Selby Urban District Council when they adopted the submarine during Warship Week in March 1942.

A third shield, from motor launch HMML153, belonging to the former Osgoldcross Rural District council, was also found.