A RARE travel guide signed by Worcester composer Sir Edward Elgar will go under the hammer at a specialist historical documents auction next week.

Baedekker's Guide to the Eastern Tyrol was signed by Elgar in 1909, the year he was hard at work on his Violin Concerto.

Auctioneers Mullock and Madeley are expecting the book to reach £300 when it is put up for sale at the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow, Shropshire, on Friday, May 23.

The sale also features a wide range of other important documents.

These include one of the last letters from Lord Cornwallis, who surrendered to George Washington to end the American War of Independence in 1781, a document signed by Sir Christopher Wren, and an original drawing by American artist Andy Warhol.