Today Duncan Baker MP met Tim Blyth, a director of Key’s Auctioneers, on the day the business sold a lock of Admiral Lord Nelson’s hair for just over £5,000.
Meeting outside Paston College, which Nelson attended from 1768-1771, Mr Baker and Mr Blyth discussed the challenges the pandemic has presented for Key’s, which was run from Mr Blyth’s North Norfolk home during the initial weeks of lockdown.
Mr Blyth said, “When the lockdown was announced, we realised we had to quickly adapt or to face closure. We faced undertaking a decade’s worth of business development in a matter of just a few weeks. However, it has been the best thing we could have done – since moving online our turnover has increased, and we’ve moved from a local customer base to a national and international one. Our staff have worked incredibly hard to make these changes at pace, and it stands us in very good stead for the future.”
Duncan Baker commented, “So many local businesses have adapted to the pressures placed on them through Covid-19 and I’m sure that in the future these new ways of doing business and embracing technology will have a profoundly positive impact on North Norfolk.”
He added, “Holding a lock of Nelson’s hair – part of a larger, important collection of memorabilia – was quite an experience. It was incredible to hold this 200-year old piece of Norfolk’s history. He remains one of the county’s most famous sons, and Britain’s greatest naval hero for his seafaring exploits, and quite rightly so.”
