Fascinating images showing Captain Scott's doomed expedition team setting off on their ill-fated trek to the South Pole have come to light.

The archive of 52 celluloid negatives were taken at the expedition base camp of Cape Evans on Ross Island and show Scott's group preparing for their Terra Nova Expedition of 1911.

The polar mission would end the following year with the deaths of Scott and that of colleagues Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Edgar Evans and Henry Bowers.

The images, which are being sold at auction in a few weeks, also show the team of husky dogs used for part of the journey.

As the conditions worsened, Scott and his men carried on without the sledges, horses and dogs, through appalling weather and increasingly tough terrain.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beat Scott to the pole by 34 days, largely because his team used dogs instead of the ponies.

Other images in the archive, which were taken by Bowers under the direction of the official photographer Herbert Ponting, show the team's pyramid tents.

Ponting brought the negatives back to England with him in preparation for Scott to use for lecture and fundraising tours around the world upon his return.

They are estimated to sell for between GBP30,000 and GBP50,000 when they go under the hammer at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire on April 18.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "The negatives offer an incredible snapshot into one of the most famous British Antarctic expeditions of the 20th century.

"They show the brutal nature of the environment these brave men had to endure.

"The clarity of the images is truly remarkable and includes previously unseen elements including Cecil Meares, the dog handler and Dimitri Gerof the dog driver, a Polar party marching, their camp, the ice shelves, mountains, shelter for the ponies, pitching tents and even them having lunch."