Last week Queen Victoria’s bloomers were auctioned off for £4500, bid for by a Canadian buyer. The sale was only estimated to make £500, so it came as a welcome surprise to auctioneer Charles Hanson in Derby.

The bloomers had an incredible 50 inch waist - Queen Victoria was known for being just 4 ft 10 ins referred to as a ‘very big lady of small stature with a very wide girth’ by Charles Hanson.

The bloomers dated back to the 1890’s and were handmade and are an open-crotch style, with separate legs joined by a drawstring waist which was a very popular style in the Victorian era. They had been initialled VR - Victoria Regina and had belonged to the family whose ancestor was a lady-in-waiting to the queen. The garment had remained in the Lincolnshire family for more than 100 years.

The time Queen Victoria reigned was the same time as women started experimenting with bras. By the early 1900s, garments more closely resembling contemporary bras emerged and women started bra fittings in order to decide which size they were. Apparently Queen Victoria was known to wear lose-fitting clothes and underwear rather than the more fashionable garments of the time.

Also up for auction was a chemise with a 66 inch bust which sold for £4000 and her night-dress sold for £5500. The UK’s longest ever reigning monarch, came to the throne aged 18 in 1819 and reigned until 1901 - hundreds of sets of her underwear, including stockings, petticoats and night-gowns, were given away after death.