AN Oxfordshire collector broke a world record selling the last known manuscript poem by John Keats for £181,250.

The 33-line script was sold by manuscript collector Roy Davids, from Great Haseley, near Thame.

The Keats manuscript is from the draft of his well-known early poem, I stood tiptoe on a little hill.

The work, scribbled on both the front and back of the manuscript, shows how the poet thought as he wrote.

This is the last poetical manuscript by Keats now ever likely to be sold and was estimated at £40,000-45,000.

The previous record for a Keats poem at auction was $130,000 (£85,000) in 2001.

Mr Davids, 70, had 160 lots under the hammer at Bonhams in New Bond Street, London, yesterday as part of the Roy Davids Collection, Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets.

A letter by Oxford author Lewis Carroll and poem written by Winston Churchill both failed to sell.

In the letter written in Carroll the 48-year-old author urges a friend, referred to as Lewis, to come to Oxford and visit him.

It was expected to go for £5,000.

Mr Davids has been collecting for more than 40 years.

In total 263 manuscripts and portraits of poets of his have been put up for sale.