Penzance auctioneer David Lay was lost for words when he accepted one of his more unusual lots - an eye-opening collection of lost property items accumulated at Cornish railway stations during 2006.

He happily answered the request from First Great Western to relieve them of the various items brought together at Penzance Railway Station, never imagining the sort of essential possessions that people could manage to lose.

At the station, he was greeted by some 300 items - including several sleeping bags and tents, three pushchairs, computer parts, electrical goods and dozens of walking sticks.

"My imagination ran riot," he recalled. "I just could not understand, for instance, how anyone heading for a camping holiday in Cornwall could manage to leave a train without a tent or sleeping bag. And how could someone get off with a child but without the pushchair?

"As for the walking sticks, did people hobble on to the trains and then miraculously skip off them at the end of their journeys?

"Then there were around a hundred umbrellas. Maybe the weather had changed for all their owners - perhaps the sun was shining as they arrived in Cornwall at the end of their journeys!"

He added: "The umbrellas reminded me of one of my all-time favourite works of art. Tertia Longmire, a friend of mine based in London but a regular visitor to Cornwall, placed a number of umbrellas in an enclosure at Paddington Station and invited passengers on the Brighton service to take them and replace them in an enclosure at Brighton, with passengers alighting at Brighton being invited to do the same thing in reverse.

"This whole idea was the work of art and it was exhibited for several days - I thought it was absolutely brilliant!"

All the items collected by David at Penzance Station had no clues as to the original owners. First Great Western had taken separate steps to return other items to their rightful homes.

The "lost property" auction raised over £240 - which First Great Western has donated to The Friends of the Station, who work towards the general upkeep of the many floral arrangements, which can be seen throughout the year.

Now David's collection of the lost property for auction could become a regular event. David enthuses: "I will be very happy to help in this way again. I am totally fascinated by lost property - the mystery over how some items can ever become lost in the first place and all the potential human interest stories behind them."