UNWANTED household items from garages, attics, cupboards and sideboards have raised £1,300 at auction.

The money will buy seeds for a horticultural mental ill health charity and water-filtration units for global crisis zones.

The Rotary Club of Kendal collected furniture, jewellery, pictures, crockery and glass and entered them into a sale at 1818 Auctioneers.

Top lots included a pair of Japanese vases which sold for £150, a vintage teddy bear which made £120 and watch whose hammer price was £90.

Rotarian Ken Gibson explained that the proceeds would be split between local charity Growing Well, who would use it to buy seeds, and an international initiative Aquabox which provides safe drinking water and humanitarian aid to crisis zones around the world.

Mr Gibson said: “We always support a local and international charity. In this instance the local one is Growing Well, because mental health issues can affect anybody, and Aquabox is our international charity.”

Growing Well is an organic farm based at Sizergh near Kendal. People with mental ill heath volunteer to run it, as a journey to recovery.

The 15 tonnes of fruit, vegetables and salad grown each year provide up to 100 local families with a weekly crop share and lunch for 20 people onsite.

Salad crops are also sent to Westmorland services, at J38 of the M6 at Tebay, and to local restaurants.

Clairelouise Chapman, Growing Well’s general manager said: “We really appreciate people gifting items in support of Growing Well. We’re dependent on charitable donations in order to run our service, and this auction is a great example of creative fundraising. Many thanks to the Rotary and 1818 Auctioneers.”

The charity works with GP's and other mental health charities and support groups. People can be referred, or self-refer, to access the free support.

Aquabox is a charity and community project set up and managed by the Rotary Club of Wirksworth to provide safe drinking water, through the use of filtration units, and humanitarian aid to crisis zones around the world.

Since its formation in 1992, Aquabox has distributed more than 110,000 boxes to countries suffering from natural and man-made disasters, helping hundreds of thousands of people in more than 50 countries.