A prominent Cockermouth building has sold for £190,000 at auction.

The former Printing House on Main Street went under the hammer at Carlisle Racecourse last Thursday with a guide price of £150,000-plus.

The bookshop, art materials supplier and gallery, which also used to contain a printing museum, closed in 2009, a year after owner David Winkworth died.

Mr Winkworth and wife Angela opened the business in 1978. He was one of the town’s best-known businessmen and promoters of its heritage.

Mrs Winkworth said it was a relief that the building had finally sold.

She added: "It's too soon to know about the purchasing and what's going to happen with it.

"It's a relief that it has gone but until I know a bit more it isn't all over.

"It should be completed by the end of August."

The large property, which includes Georgian and Elizabethan elements, a courtyard and some side buildings, had been on the market for a long time and was damaged in the 2009 floods.