DOCUMENTS dating back to the 1930s have been found in an old chest of drawers.

Staff at Plantation discovered them as they moved the 12ft antique drawers out of a shed at the garden centre.

“They only took the drawers out to make it a bit lighter,” said Elly Yates.

“But every time they took one out they kept finding more stuff.”

Hidden inside were 58-year-old packets of seeds and dozens of ledgers that staff from yesteryear had used to record accounts, wages and sales of poisons such as nicotine sulphate.

Another book detailed mishaps from 1953 to 1969.

“They were obviously very safe because they only had four accidents,” said Mrs Yates. The first accident was logged on June 26 1953. A ladder had slipped and a member of staff had hurt his wrist.

Nine years later a nail went through someone’s shoe.

Six years later - on June 13 1968 - someone slipped on insecticide in the stock room and grazed their knee and finally on July 8 1969 a woman fell in the ladies’ toilets.

The 1940s’ wages ledger showed that men working the land during the Second World War were paid 65 shillings - 17 shillings more than a woman.

And the banking book from the 1930s showed the company deposited £1,340 at the end of one week.

“They were turning over quite a decent amount,” said Mrs Yates whose husband Andy now owns the garden centre. The business, formerly G and W Yates, has been in the family for six generations.

Last week Mrs Yates’ father-in-law, Peter, who previously owned it, was combing through the documents.

“The writing in the ledgers is beautiful and you forget people sat and wrote these because now everything’s on computers,” she said. She now hopes to dry the damp documents to that they can be displayed at the garden centre in Plumley Moor Road.

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