UNIQUE items from the former home of Victorian explorer Gertrude Bell are set to go under the hammer at a Dales auction house.

Ms Bell was, among other things, a writer, traveller, mountaineer and a political officer and was the first woman to ever receive a First Class degree in Modern History following her studies at Oxford University.

She travelled extensively and was appointed to run the Iraq section of the Arab Bureau in Basra.

At the Cairo Conference in 1921 the geographical structuring of the modern states of the Middle East was decided, and Ms Bell was consulted due to her knowledge of the region.

For a woman of the Victorian era her accomplishments were extraordinary and in 2015 a major film based on her life,’Queen of the Desert’ was released starring Nicole Kidman.

Ms Bell was born in Washington New Hall, County Durham, and items from her family home in Rounton Grange, North Yorkshire are up for sale at Tennants auctioneers in Leyburn on March 17.

These include two carpets presented to Ms Bell by King Faisal I, each with an estimate of £500 to £800.

There are also William Morris-designed Morris & Co curtains offered in a collection of soft furnishings which will carry an estimate of £1,000 to £2,000.