THE shoes worn by Sir Roger Bannister as he broke the world record for the four-minute mile will be going on sale later this year.

He wore the thin, leather running shoes, which have six spikes on each sole, when he became the first man to run a sub-four minute mile, managing it in three minutes and 59.4 seconds.

He made sporting history on Thursday, May 6, 1954, at the Iffley Road athletics track which now bears his name.

The shoes, estimated to be worth between £30,000 and £50,000, will be going on sale on Thursday, September 10, at Christie’s Out of the Ordinary auction in South Kensington, London.

Sir Roger, who is now 86, has signed an accompanying letter of provenance which will be sold alongside the four and a half ounce shoes, which were made by GT Law and Son.

He said: “I could see there was an advantage in having the shoe as light as possible.

“The leather is extremely thin and the spikes are unusually thin, as I used a grindstone to make them even thinner.

He added: “Someone passing said, ‘You don’t really think that’s going to make any difference, do you?’ “Then I rubbed graphite on the spikes so that the wet cinder of the track might be less likely to stick to the spikes.

“They served me great purpose, I’m grateful to them.”

On Monday the stopwatch used to record Sir Roger’s running record sold for £20,000.

It went on auction at Sotheby’s Auction House in London and went to an anonymous owner, along with an invoice for repairs.

The North Oxford resident said: “I think it’s the right time to part with the shoes.

“These shoes are the last tangible link I have with the four minute mile.

“All of my trophies are now on display at Pembroke College where I was Master.”

  • Sir Roger Bannister speaks to the University of Oxford about his amazing feat

He said that part of the proceeds will go to the Autonomic Charitable Trust, a charity which raises money specifically for medical research into neurological conditions.

Last year Sir Roger revealed to the Oxford Mail that he suffers from the degenerative neurological condition, Parkinson’s disease.

Ironically, before he was diagnosed in 2011, Sir Roger was a famed neurologist and an expert on Parkinson’s.