HISTORICAL items from Braintree’s past have been put on display in a business after it opened up in a newly restored building.

Old shop signs, pottery and a Victorian range cooker were some of the artefacts uncovered when G Collins & Sons Funeral Directors started renovating their new Rayne Road office nearly two years ago.

Director Gemma Burton said: “We have had a lot of trials and tribulations because it’s Grade II listed.

“The roof was to the point of collapse. There almost wasn’t a building left but we have managed to keep most of it.

“We have had to repair everything and we have just found these things.”

The 32-year-old took over the business with brother James Collins, 34, from their grandfather, Keith, eleven years ago.

They bought the Rayne Road premises, previously Printability, to expand from their White Notley headquarters.

The work included a huge undertaking to remove and restore the crumbling roof.

Mrs Burton said the building and its grounds have had several different uses over the years, including as a pub, a record shop and a home for the poor.

She said: “One of the most poignant things we found was a wooden spoon.In 1500 it was used as a residential hall house and you can still see the teeth marks on it.

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“We also found a Victorian range cooker. We won’t be using it, but it’s these sorts of things that the public have been really interested in.

“All of the businesses that have been here over the years left a little trail.

“We also found lots of oyster shells because this was a Roman road.” Oysters were a staple of the Roman diet.

Other items found- sometimes within the walls- include a huge wooden beam from 1790, a Braintree phone book, bottles, records and a TV set, possibly from the building’s time as J H Moody & Sons radio and TV repair shop.

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Mrs Burton said her children Aaron, 10, and Sophie, eight, and James’ son, George, six, had been fascinated by the restoration.

She said: “It was originally one building and over the years it’s been chopped and changed.

“We haven’t bought it to do it up and move on, we have bought it for our children’s inheritance.”

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