A BEATLES fan from Salisbury who sold a unique letter from George Harrison for £7,500 may have thrown away other letters and memorabilia that could have been worth a small fortune.

Lynn Smith, 63, was a huge fan of the Liverpool group as a teenager living in London, and she and her friends would go to concerts and travel everywhere to try to get a glimpse of their heroes, and collect anything and everything to do with them.

She said: “One of my friends once took a jacket belonging to John Lennon but her mum found out and made her post it back because it was stealing.

“I wrote to all of them at different times and got numerous letters back but, about 30 years ago, I had a real clear out and put some letters and stuff into a box and forgot about it.”

Last year Mrs Smith unearthed the box and in it found a three-page letter from Harrison, who died in 2001, giving all sorts of insights into life for The Beatles in 1963, at the start of their meteoric rise to fame and Beatlemania.

But there was no sign of the other letters.

“The letter from George was the only one I still had. He was my favourite, which is why I kept it. I can’t remember for sure what others I had but I’m sure I had a letter from Paul McCartney.”

The letter from Harrison was written from a hotel in Bournemouth, where the Fab Four were doing a six-day stint at the town’s Gaumont Theatre, now the Odeon Cinema.

In response to questions asked by his fan, Harrison details the harmonies he sings in She Loves You and the B-side track I’ll Get You – admitting to singing the wrong words in the middle part of the latter.

Clearly accused by his fan of keeping Ringo Starr hidden at the back of the stage, George goes on to insist that he, McCartney and John Lennon had in fact tried to push Ringo into the limelight by offering to play the drums for some numbers so he could join in the dance routines and singing.

Ringo, it appears, politely declined. In George’s opinion, “I think he was scared”.

One of the most personal insights into what performing with the Beatles was like is revealed when George gently chastises his correspondent for throwing jelly babies and wine gums at their concerts: “think how we feel trying to dodge the stuff before you throw some more... I was hit in the eye once with a boiled sweet, and it’s not funny!”

At auction the letter made ten times what it was expected to.

Mrs Smith said: “I did think hard about selling it but I have some signed photos which I’m hanging on to.”

The letter was sold by Salisbury auctioneers Woolley and Wallis, where it made ten times the amount it was expected to go for.

Mrs Smith said: “I never expected it to get that much. I did think hard about selling it but I have some signed photos, which I’m hanging on to. At least if someone pays that amount of money you know they really want it and they’re going to look after it.”