SHIRLEY Bassey might have famously sung of Goldfinger, the Bond villain with a love for bullion, but it seems people in Worcestershire could have given him a run for his money.

Research conducted for the Daily Telegraph by online bullion dealer BullionByPost ranked the county sixth in the UK for the amount of gold ordered.

The figures showed the average order from customers in Worcestershire over the past six years was £4,592, just £792 less than in Stevenage in Hertfordshire, which topped to poll with an average order of £5,384.

But our neighbours over the border in Hereford are apparently even more flush, with an average order of £5,021, placing it fourth in the UK.

Leader of Worcestershire County Council Cllr Adrian Hardman said on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon he was "just a little taken aback" by the results.

North west London came second at £5,271 followed by west and central London at £5,237 while Llandrindod Wells in mid Wales was bottom with an average order of just £668.

The precious metal is popular as an investment as the price tends to fluctuate in line with the price of crude oil.

Gold and silver can be bought online in the form of bars and coins, with prices standing at about £745 per gold ounce, or almost £24,000 for a kilogram.