I’ve found an enormous - I mean enormous - old bible in the rafters of my loft

[TheBramley]

It’s got marriage, birth and death inscriptions in the front pages from 1840. It’s in a bad way but fully intact. What should I do with it? I live in an ex local authority properly from about 1950. It was behind the old wadding.

I’m not sure the pictures do it justice - it’s massive.

Who published it?

That's amazing.

You need a banana!

I have one similar from my grandma’s family. There are even pressed flowers within its pages I often wonder which of my great great aunts put them there.

Measure it and let us know!

You could join the Roots Chat Forum (it's free) and go to the board that covers your county. If you post there, they'll trace the family for you and advise you on the local records office/heritage centre who might like to have it. They have archivists trained to restore books.
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/

What a wonderful find, I have an ancestry account if you want me to check any names found x

I have ours. It has brass clasps on it. Names go back to late 1800s.
It lives in the loft- but I did wrap it in brown paper.

See if you have local museum or historical society who may take it.

We have a huge family bible like that, I think they are common in Catholic families. Perhaps hand it in to which ever church seems to be associated with it and perhaps members of the same family still go there?

Why not get a bible box to protect it OP and @Rowgtfc72

We don’t have an old bible ☹️ But we have a bible box currently holding out of date covid test kits 🤣🤣🤣

Well off Catholic families maybe, not us Irish lot who lost it all 😒

OP, could you photograph it with something standard like milk or cola bottle next to it for scale?

I’ve just measured it. It’s a bit squeiff but it’s 20 - 21 inches high. My guess is that it was created to be 21 inches? Its spine is a bit of a mess. It’s 9 inches deep.

Wow. I would either keep it or try find the family, maybe use social media.

If this was FB and you were on the Things Found in Walls...group, it would be a banana 😂 That's the standard!

Why would someone hide it in the fabric of the building I wonder.
I assume that’s what you mean by wadding OP ?

Search online and see if there is a local history group in your area, or a family history society. They would love to be able to have access to an old record like that, and might even be able to trace present-day descendants of the people in it.

these old victorian family bibles are often the same size as pulpit bibles they lived on a table or lecturn, ( a different smaller bible would be for personal use and reading / studying) and would be used for family worship in religious households in which case there will be signs of wear on the pages.
Depending on the binding mostly black leather with embossed brass clasps,page edges often gilt, they are worth between 40-100 pounds,
there were really only two versions around at the time the King James version used by C of E and methodists baptists independents etc and the Catholic version

Years back when I moved into my first home, looked in the loft and found a box of porn magazines!

You probably can but they take a while to post as they get scrutinised first. Unless you’re new?

Oh wow how wonderful. Read it.

That's very cool, I'd want to trace descendants who might want it. I would love it if someone found a family Bible used by my ancestors, although from what I've found out about mine they weren't very religious!

It may have been stolen. What churches are near you?