Byram Park, Brotherton, will be a centre of national interest on Monday and for the ensuing nine weeks, when nearly 10,000 vehicles of all types will come under the hammer.

It will be the second big sale of its kind since hostilities ended - Great Missendon was the first - and evidence of its wide appeal is shown in the number of applications for catalogues received from all parts of England as well as from Scotland and Wales.

Opening with the sale of 258 two-seater and saloon cars, the auctioneers (Messrs Hollis and Webb of Leeds) will subsequently offer all types of vehicles including vans, lorries, ambulances, tractors and armoured cars. On the last day of the sale on September 19th the 'rags' from all classes which are little more than scrap, will be put up as final lots. At the moment, the vehicles are parked with parade-like precision within the 13 mile perimeter of the park and since February when the Ministry of Supply took over from the military to create this Great Northern Depot, as it is called, hundreds of men have been employed on a 24 hour day guard, They have done their job so well that only three trespassers have attempted an unauthorised look-round.

Pontefract and Castleford Express July 1946

2,000th VEHICLE LEAVES BYRAM PARK

Business continued briskly at the sale of Government motor vehicles at Byram Park, Brotherton, on Tuesday - the second day of the third week of the sale. Total receipts topped the £200,000 mark, and on Wednesday, the 2,000th of the vehicles bought so far left the Park, Fully 50% of the departing vehicles left under their own power.

It has been another 'commercial vehicle' week and while the crowds have never been so big as the first week when cars were sold, they have maintained a high average, Bidding has always been lively, The absorbing attraction of private cars was clearly illustrated on Wednnesday when crowds were much bigger than usual owing to the fact that ten private cars were sandwiched among upwards of 200 lorries, trucks and vans. Extreme prices were paid during the week were 295 guineas for a Bedford truck - which has been popular through-out the week and seldom went for less than 200 guineas; 235 guineas for an Albion bridging lorry, and at the other end of the scale, 22 guineas for a 15cwt truck.

The auctioneers (Messrs Hollis and Webb of Leeds) have maintained 'a-vehicle-a -minute' average and the traffic arrangements in the Park have enabled buyers to get their vehicles away quickly.

Pontefract and Castleford Express August 1946