Record donation

A widow has given 4000 vinyl records spanning every classical genre to her local Oxfam shop, the largest music donation in the charity's history, a spokesman has said.

The collection, worth an estimated £25,000, ranges from Bach and Haydn to Stravinsky and Stockhausen and will keep the shop stocked for three years.

It was donated by an unnamed woman, in her 50s, to her local Oxfam store in Tavistock after the death of her husband.

"It is amazing. I can't think of a classical genre that is missing," said Oxfam volunteer Terry Hyde. "It is all there – all your big figures from the 18th and 19th century, your 20th century unlistenable nightmares by Stockhausen, avant garde, opera, unaccompanied violin. Virtually every genre is covered."

Shop manager Jacky Theobald said the collection was too big to go on sale at the same time.

"It is a small shop," she said. "We will do a Chopin week, a Mozart week, that sort of thing."

Oxfam – which says it seeks to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice in more than 100 countries – makes around five million pounds each year from the sale of film and music. It recently received a rare Rolling Stones demo single and a Handel score.