Nottinghamshire villagers uncover 16th Century secrets contained in chest

The documents were found in a chest in an outhouse

History enthusiasts are investigating hundreds of "astonishing" documents found in a chest hidden for hundreds of years.

The historical documents, written in Latin and English, were discovered in the box in an outhouse at Upper Broughton, Nottinghamshire.

The vellum and parchment documents hold details of names and trades of local people, titles and wills dating back to the reign of Henry VIII.

Work to translate them is under way.

The contents of the documents could shed light on the lives of King Henry VIII's subjects

Upper Broughton History Group described the discovery of the chest, as "incredible" and said the documents were in "tremendous" condition.

Rosemary Russell, co-chair of the group, said the documents were donated by local farmer Nick Connors, whose father had found them in the 1960s or 70s at a farm he had bought.

She said the chest contained about 250 documents, mostly relating to land, in seven bundles, wrapped in brown paper.

"If you stand with your back to our church and just take a sweep of the gravestones in front of you, the names on those stones are in these documents," she said.

"It's people who lived here in past generations and we only know a fraction of their stories."

Members are photographing the items and logging the information before they are archived to help people researching family history.

Rushcliffe Borough Council has provided a grant to fund their work.

Tina Combellack, Conservative borough councillor for the village, said: "This was an astonishing find and villagers have worked so hard to start to piece together what the documents are and just how far back they go.

"So far they have found documents going back to the 1600s and one which appeared to refer to a King Henry, so it's possible they date as far back as the 16th Century."