IT WAS crunch time at Stroud Auction Rooms when bidding began for a 100-year-old biscuit.

The unusual item went for £220 to Thomas Macey, 28, an expert at the auction rooms who said it was a dream come true.

Made by Huntley & Palmers as part of the 1914-1918 the war effort, the company made nine different types of biscuits for troops in the armed forces.

Although at a century-old it was rock-hard, it was intact despite having travelled all the way to the front line and back during the First World War.

“I am a mad collector of Huntley & Palmers tins but I have never been able to buy a biscuit,” Thomas said, who is from Reading where the company was established.

“There was quite a buzz as it went up because you don’t see that many 100-year-old biscuits.

“My heart was beating so hard and it was a dream come true for me to get it.

“I am now the proud owner of a Huntley & Palmers No 4 biscuit.”

Lyn Bowkett, owner of Stroud Auctions in Bath Road, said: “He was absolutely determined to own it and a round of applause broke out in the saleroom when he finally outbid the internet and room bidders.”

It had arrived at the auction rooms in a small cardboard box in which it had been sealed for the past 30 years.

"I had to persuade the vendor to open the box so I could identify the biscuit," said Thomas.

"She had been told to keep it sealed up so it wouldn't deteriorate and was rather nervous about opening it."

Huntley & Palmers was founded in 1822 by Joseph Huntley and was initially a small biscuit baker and confectioner in London Street, Reading. At this time London Street was the main stage coach route from London to Bristol, Bath and the West Country.

One of the main calling points of the stage coaches was the Crown Inn, opposite Mr Huntley's shop, and he started selling his biscuits to the travellers on the coaches.

Because the biscuits were vulnerable to breakage or going stale on the coach journey, he started putting them in metal tins – the first biscuit company to do so.

The elaborately decorated and highly collectable biscuit tins proved to be a powerful marketing tool and they travelled as far as Africa and Tibet - even going to the South Pole on Captain Scott's 1910 expedition.

During the First World War the company produced biscuits for the war effort and devoted their tin-making resources to making cases for artillery shells.

The biscuit was sold in the ephemera section of the auction on Wednesday, April 13.