Has anyone found anything interesting left in a house by the old owners ?

[cleo333]

im interested in this esp old houses ( I had a friend who found dinky cars )

A packet of giant sparklers in the top of an airing cupboard.

When dismantling a set of drawers inside a fitted wardrobe, in the base I found a lost pack of Durex Gossamer with a use by date of 1968. It originally contained 12 but only 3 left. I opened up one of the foil packs and the condom was very yellow but possibly still usable - I did not use it! There was also an unopened pack of M&S tights from a similar era. Also not used by me!

I know someone who found a skeleton in their house. Reported it to the police, transpired it had been used for teaching / medical training, and had been wired together. Quite grim though

In the loft we found a load of spare rolls of wallpaper, all matching different rooms in the house. A couple of them came in quite handy.

There was also an electrical cable running from the house down to the shed at the bottom of the garden, which we thought was great until we discovered that the entire thing was lethal when switched on as it was in such poor condition.

A quite large iron grave marker in the shape of an ornate cross, name date of death, age. It was from the grave of the seller's brother, taken away when the permanent stone was erected. He didn't want it back. I got a fright when I saw it standing against the wall in the dark garage!

In the same garage, two huge plastic bags FULL of little yellow rubber ducks. I kid you not. Hundreds of them. Apparently the family stored them for the annual charity duck race held every year in the stream in the park at the back. All the neighbourhood kids had a great time playing with them in our garden, until we donated them to the local children's respite care home, for whom the race was run. They were happy to take them. That was 30 years ago now.

Loads of old printing letter presses and the wooden sorting trays for them. My dad is a retired printer and said they're of a type that's long out of use and had probably been salvaged by an employee of somewhere that had gone out of business.

Also an air rifle and a framed signed photograph of Danny Dyer.

I lived in a house in Fulham and I know the people who bought it would have found an old marble gravestone in a cupboard under the stairs. My Mum used it to keep food cool as she didn't have a fridge. The inscription was faulty so that is why my Dad bought it.

We found some risque black and white photos of a middle aged woman from the late 1960s (they had a date on the back). We put them back as we didn't want to be cursed!

Knickers behind a radiator. We also found a lot of really sweet things in our smallest bedroom when we took up the floor. The room had apparently once belonged to a little boy called Sam. On the hearth was plywood with ‘built by granddad and Sam’ written on it and under a floorboard a little box saying ‘Sam’s toys’ containing animal playing cards. Not sure on age but the cards look from 70s era. I kept the playing cards, wish I could find adult Sam somewhere!

My Dad passed away in January. My mum had passed away about 10 years previously.

My brother brought me some boxes with photos and some ornaments and a few bits and pieces. Every box I opened had a set of rosary beads in them. We even found the 'emergency rosary beads' which had not been seen for years.

DH and I bought our first house many years ago. It was an executry sale. Had a wander round and up to one of the bedrooms. We found the walking stick and wheel chair for the old man who had died. On the handle of the wheelchair was his cap.

I never slept in that room.

A house we lived in 10 years ago had about 30 pairs of pants/knickers hidden in the garden. Apparently the previous owner had dogs who liked to steal them.

Nothing really in current house, but a previous owner (35 years ago) introduced themselves and told us they’d hidden a time capsule in the house. She was convinced it hadn’t been found, and despite renovations we haven’t found it yet.

In the loft, my DD found a parcel wrapped up carefully in old newspapers and string. We were quite excited to open it. It contained a random lump of wood. No idea about the significance of it. No clue in the newspapers.

I work in heritage - you might be able to donate to a local museum? Please don't bin them!

Newspaper had been used to wrap up apples and pears from the fruit trees in the garden, then stored in the roof void of the lean-to; then eaten by mice and so we found trays of perfectly preserved fruit-shaped empty newspaper (think papier mache balloon).

Big, very old, family bible with family tree drawn on the front in the attic. (We returned it to the seller.)

The rubbish buried in the garden. The house was very old and predated refuse services so it was just buried. Nice.

@SquadGoals75 thegreatdiaryproject.co.uk might be interested?

Hundreds of women’s weekly magazines dated 1950 onwards in our loft, there’s probably more up there. Along with a letter from a dad to his daughter while he’s was away fighting in ww2 plus lots of Little toys and a photo of a priest

@Mrsknowitall My late DM bought the Woman's Weekly for many years. They used to publish some brilliant short stories in them and serials that went on for about 4 issues. If you like reading, it might be worth a go. Oh, and if there is a local knitting / crafting group, they'd probably be pleased to have them for the knitting patterns.

I found an electric guitar in the loft, sold it on Ebay for over £100 and that was a few years ago!

The property was derelict and the previous owner had died 8yrs earlier.

-Found his 1970's passport under the carpet
-1930's coins
-His 1980's porn stash in a secret cupboard in the toilet cubicle
-A pair of old Y fronts used to stuff in a gap in the wall
-8, dead lawnmowers in the greenhouse. All the same type. Presumably when they broke, he just bought a new one!

Mum’s house in attic lots of Victorian hand painted paintings of flowers. Mine, nothing!

A large Victorian water jug.
Family studio photograph
Silver necklace
Previous owners left no address. I've still got them, just in case.

Yeah, but it's odd, because the previous owners did renovate it too, and it was also around 40 years ago 😁

I reckon they probably found the coins and stuff and just put it back, like I have done.The trinkets belong to the house by this point, properties like this are almost living breathing entities of their own (with the equivalent level of upkeep....haha)

We found a broadsword in the garage, on a high up shelf!

When I stripped the wallpaper off in the dining room I found the plaster had been signed and dated (from the 1980s) by a bloke who was a friend of my dad's. I know his DD and she laughed when I said, 'Apparently your dad plastered my dining room 40 odd years ago - I found his signature'.