Memories in a box reveal life of a Cotswolds couple
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Your support makes all the difference.A historical treasure that offers a glimpse into country life a century ago has been unearthed in a Cotswold cottage.
Artefacts documenting the life of a married couple were found in a wall cavity of a semi-detached cottage.
A metal box contained birth and marriage certificates, wedding photographs and correspondence with friends from as far afield as India, all in good condition.
Letting agents are trying to trace relatives of Herbert and Irene Branston, who spent their entire married lives at the cottage in Albion Street in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, so they can pass the box on. Mrs Branston died in 2002 and so far none of her family have been traced.
"It is a fascinating record of a complete marriage and family life dating back to 1910," Rachel Vincent, of estate agents Moore Allen and Innocent, said. "There are birth and marriage certificates, photographs of weddings and family occasions, letters from friends, some who live in India - all of them giving a wonderful insight into bygone times."
Builders discovered the box when they knocked down an interior wall built across an alcove in the cottage. "I am sure any member of this family would love to have it," Ms Vincent said. "It will be terribly sad if we have to throw it all away because we cannot find any of the family to pass it on to. It obviously means something to someone, but we don't know who.
"There are pictures of family holidays, games of bowls - possibly on the Cirencester Bowling Green - and wonderful wedding scenes," she added. "The letters appear to be from a friend Mr Branston had made during his time in India. The friend is a Hindu man who mentions that he lost all of his possessions during events in Pakistan in the 1940s."
She said the oldest documents in the box go back to 1910. These include Mr Branston's birth certificate and deeds for the property, number 47, and also for number 49 next door, which seems to have belonged to the couple at one time as well.
"The house is a two bedroom, semi-detached cottage dating back to the late 1880s," Ms Vincent said. "We sold it, and its other half, to developers who have been modernising it for let. It was while they were working on it that they found the box hidden behind the wall in an alcove.
"Hopefully by getting a message out to the public about this box we can trace somebody related to the family or close friends.
"It is so sad that this may have been meant to stay in the family and is now sat in our office," Ms Vincent said.
Apart from the light it will shed on the family's past, historians may be interested to study the material for an added perspective on life in Cirencester and Gloucestershire in the last century.
The artefacts date to a time shortly after the largest agricultural college in the English-speaking world was founded in the town.
From the 18th century onwards, Cirencester, which is in the heart of the Cotswolds, was a thriving market town.
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