A Braintree trader’s adrenaline kicked in as he successfully outbid rivals for a piece of the town’s history.

Andy Gill, who owns AG Glass in Benfield Way, Braintree, paid £320 at an auction in Bocking Arts Theatre for the sign which used to point out the Essex Barn nightclub in Rayne Road.

The venue, one of the most popular nightspots in the county until it was pulled down in 1990, was where Braintree-born Liam Howlett and his friends used to meet, forming the Prodigy at the turn of the 1990s.

In November 1972, it was the scene of a horrific shooting of a mother in front of her husband and daughter, when it was known as the Barn restaurant.

See tomorrow's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.