THE leather-bound ledgers at Duckers in Oxford, the city's most famous shoe shop, offer a fascinating snapshot of early 20th century history.

Customers at the Turl Street store, which dates back to 1898, once included an array of famous faces such Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, Brideshead Revisited novelist Evelyn Waugh, and publisher Sir Basil Blackwell.

Now historians and former customers have a chance to get their hands on a piece of the shop's past as the ledgers are being sold at auction next month after Bob and Isobel Avery, who have been running Duckers, decided to retire with the shop set to close at the end of the month.

Oxford auctioneers Mallams will sell the 11 volumes at the Oxford Authors Sale on Wednesday, February 8, with a guide price of £4,000 to £6,000.

Fixtures and fittings from the store at 6 Turl Street, the home of the Oxford Brogue, are expected to be sold later this year.

Mallams’ senior director Benjamin Lloyd, who has worked as an auctioneer in Oxford since 1970, said: "This archive is a unique social history of the city and its environs from the early to the mid 20th century."

Visitors to ‘Duckers’, its traditional surroundings almost unchanged since the Edwardian era, will be familiar with the 12 x 9in leather-bound volumes displayed on shelves at the back of the store.

Numbered four to 15, with the first three volumes missing, the ledgers cover the period from 1910 to 1958.

Copperplate writing details the names, addresses and sartorial style of thousands of customers, both town and gown.

They ranged from little-known Oxford academics and wealthy undergraduates with a taste in bespoke footwear to World War One flying ace Baron von Richthofen, European aristocratic families and several maharajahs.

More recent patrons have included Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent, comedian Rowan Atkinson, former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson and Formula One boss Eddie Jordan.

One of the entries for JRR Tolkien shines a light on his time at Oxford University's Exeter College.

Tolkien arrived as an undergraduate at Exeter College in 1911 and within a few years he and his contemporaries were transported to the Western Front in France and many of them did not come back.

The entry dated 1913 records the purchase of black football boots for 14 shillings and sixpence and a pair of porpoise laces for 10 pence. The year was an important one for Tolkien, then a student at Exeter College, Oxford.

He changed his course from the Classics to English Literature and proposed to his childhood sweetheart Edith Bratt.

Then in 1950 and 1958, there are entries for Tolkien as he bought shoes at Duckers when he was a Fellow at Merton College.

When the shop closes, it is expected Oxford Wine Company will move in.

It has applied to the city council for a premises licence to sell alcohol, for consumption elsewhere, from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 9pm and on Sunday from 11am to 4pm.

Owner Ted Sandbach said: "The premises licence has been approved - the lease runs until March 31 but we might be allowed in beforehand to do some work.

"I think we should be open by mid-summer."