Rachid's delight at finding a fascinating piece of Victorian history in the attic of South Shore house

Rachid Hamida and colleagues Pablo Slodyczka and Sebastian Tara were busy working in the attic of the property in St Chad’s Road, South Shore when they discovered papers dating back well over a century, most of them editions of a periodical paper from 1892.

The copies of ‘Work – an illustrated magazine of practice and theory for all workmen, professional and amateur’ are in remarkable condition considering their age and Rachid is planning to pass them on to a local heritage group.

The publications are filled with articles on items such as furniture, musical instruments, photographic equipment, along with adverts for items such as Beechams Pills, the ‘Demon’ Water Motor, Wright’s Book of Poultry and Bovril, and offer a fascinating snapshot of the late Victorian times in which they were printed.

"We were surprised to find them and the first reaction was shock at the age of the items and what relatively good condition they are in,” said Rachid, who has owned the property, latterly a guest house, for several years but had never previously taken such a detailed look in the attic.

The Work papers date back to when it was built, but some among the find are even older.

"They are certainly very readable and it’s fascinating to think that the men perhaps building the house 130 years ago were handling and reading them,” added Rachid.

"They were just tucked away in a pile in the corner and so well preserved. There are illustrations of stairs and other key features of houses and I presume the men building the house were using them for reference.”

‘Work’, which covers any type of design work, with plan illustrations frequently given, was first published in 1889 and was available in various annual volumes as a periodical which could be save and bound for future reference. Cover price of the individual editions in 1892 was one old penny.

It later developed into the Journal of Handicrafts and covered self sufficiency old style, even, in later times, telling readers how to make their own power-driven vacuum cleaner.