An East Renfrewshire man has shared his surprise after tradesmen discovered a fascinating 115-year-old item while working on his family home.
Joiners were taking off a skirting board at Stephen Pope's property in Giffnock last week when they found a “beautiful” greetings card in near perfect condition dated “1908-9”.
They immediately rushed up the stairs to show the card to the dad-of-two who lives at the Edwardian semi with his wife Nicola, teenage daughters Sophie and Lucy and dog Eddie.
Stephen told the Barrhead News: “The guy was just making good the skirting boards either side of the fireplace.
“In order to do that though, he had to take off another section of the skirting board and when that happened, that's when the wee card popped out.
“I suspect that it had just fallen down behind there because in the olden days between the skirting board and the wall it wouldn’t have been like it is now with decorators mate or silicone or something filling the wee gap.
“The card looks in great condition considering.
“Fortunately, it’s not really been subjected to any dampness or anything like that, so we’re lucky.”
It is not the first historical discovery the family has made during their eight years in the house.
They have also found various bits of old newspaper from periods such as the early 90s and 60s, as well as a decorators name written on a bedroom wall in the 40s and a bed pan left in the loft where it was being used to catch a leak.
Their latest find, however, is definitely the oldest.
According to the date inside the card, it was made just a few years after the house was built and wishes a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from “Mr and Mrs Wm. Templeton Jnr.”
While the house is on St Catherine’s Road, the address printed in it is “9 St Catherine’s Drive, Giffnock,” which Stephen admits threw him a bit.
“I noticed the address references St Catherine’s Drive rather than St Catherine’s Road which got me thinking,” explained the 48-year-old.
“Our house was built in 1904. Giffnock Primary, in its current location, was opened in 1906 which I assume is when Academy Road would have been built.
“There isn’t a house number one on this street either. Could this have been demolished to make way for Academy Road and could the name of the street have been changed at that time? Or, perhaps it was just a ‘typo’ on the card?”
Stephen is now keen to find out more about the Templetons and is considering heading to the Mitchell Library in future to do some research.
As for the card, the family hope to frame it and return it to the room it has called home for more than a century.
Stephen added: “The name Templeton appeared on the on the card and they must have been the owners of the house at the time and it would be quite interesting even just to see what job the guy did.
"My mum was saying you can get things like this card cleaned up, but to be honest, I quite like it with the wee stains on it because I think it just adds that little bit more character to it.
“We will definitely put it into a frame and put it in that front room when the room is finished just as a link to how it was in the past.”
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