Official portraits of one of Tipton’s former mayors have been lost.

The family of Bill Drew, who was youngest ever mayor of the town in 1963 before it merged with Sandwell, has spent the past year trying to locate the treasured portraits, which once adorned the walls of the town’s council house. But so far they have drawn a blank.

According to Bill’s family the pictures, of which there are believed to be around 30 in total including both photographs and oil paintings, were removed from the Municipal Buildings in Sedgley Road West in the late 1960s and mothballed.

They were reportedly taken away for cleaning when the town’s council house was being refurbished after Tipton amalgamated with Sandwell in 1966. Most of the town became part of Sandwell, but a small area, including the municipal buildings, became the responsibility of Dudley. While Sandwell Council says the portraits were taken on by Dudley Council, it says it has never owned them and knows nothing of them.

Bill’s brother Joe Drew, 82, of Menin Road, said: “They’ve got to be somewhere, they can’t just disappear. These pictures mean a lot to the people of Tipton and this is where they should be.”

Bill Drew was responsible for leading the fundraising to build Tipton Sports Academy.

But he died in 1996, aged 87, when he was knocked down as he crossed Birmingham New Road.

His daughter Joan Reid, added: “My father was a very proud Tiptonian. To think that these portraits have been lost is very upsetting.”

Sandwell Council leader Councillor Bill Thomas said tracking down artefacts was always a problem.