The sale of historic artefacts associated with the Manx health service has sparked a storm of protest.

Among the items that went under the hammer at Chrystals Auctions on Saturday was the original dedication plaque for the Jane Crookall maternity home from 1939. It fetched £120.

The plaque had hung in the entrance to the old Jane until it closed in 1993.

It was among a number of items that had been stored on the Noble’s site and in the basement of the Jane, now the Department of Health and Social Care’s Crookall House headquarters.

A decision was taken by the DHSC to have a clear-out, after consulting with Manx National Heritage over which items to keep.

Fortunately, members of the Crookall family were alerted about the auction and took steps to purchase the plaque.

Editor and former journalist Valerie Cottle said the sell-off was a ’disgrace’.

She said: ’After H.B. Noble, Crookall was the greatest private 20th century benefactor to public health in the island.

’It was all an extraordinary bit of mismanagement. Why on earth couldn’t it have been left where it was at Crookall House?’

David Cretney MLC posted on his Facebook page: ’We aren’t really that short of money are we?’

Former MLC Dudley Butt said the DHSC had disposed of the items ’obviously having no idea of their moral or historical value’.

Health Minister David Ashford said: ’All the items were catalogued and a comprehensive list was given to MNH and the Public Records Office, to establish if any were of national or historic importance.

’Some items were retained, the remainder was transferred to Chrystals auction house, to be offered to the public.’ He added: ’The process was carried out meticulously.

’I would like to have retained the Jane Crookall plaque.

’If there’s an opportunity to retrieve it for our own archive, we will do so.’

Among other items auctioned was a wall plaque from the opening of the Children’s Village in 1953 which fetched just £20.

An Art Deco brass plaque, to the memory of Dr Lionel D Woods OBE, sold for £90.