Mysterious vintage sign unearthed by men clearing Rotherham garden

A sign thought to be over 100 years old has been dug up in a back garden in Rotherham, and now the owner is trying to uncover its secrets.

Keith Twiss, 63, and Alan Bews, 80, unearthed an old sign for the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star newspapers next to another blank sign whilst clearing a plot of land opposite Mr Twiss’ house in Maltby.

Mr Twiss said: “We were digging out the rough area on our land which is close to a church wall, and when we removed some of the old foliage we discovered that there were these signs.

“We were just going to leave them there but we got fascinated with reading it. We realised it must have come from a newsagents,” he added.

Initially, the pair thought the sign was from the late 20th century and to have come from a nearby newsagents, but on closer inspection found out the precise name used on the sign dates it between 1887 and 1937.

The antique was “buried deep into the earth” by the fence, but neither man could work out why it might have been put there in the first place as it did not serve an obvious structural purpose.

Mr Twiss said: “It just seems strange that somebody would bring that sign any considerable distance just to put it at the base of a fence.”

Since their discovery, the two have put on their detective hats to try and discover the true origins of the sign.

They believe it could predate parts of the town itself, which has existed as a farming settlement for almost 1,000 years. 

Explaining that the mines in the town only opened around 1912, Mr Twiss said: “This sign could predate the production of coal here.”

On their search for knowledge the pair showed the sign to an auctioneer, who agreed with their dating but unfortunately informed them that the condition of the sign did not make it especially valuable.

“They said if it was in perfect condition it would be worth a fair amount of money!” Mr Twiss said.

A breakthrough came when the men noticed the pricing on the sign, which was advertising the paper for sale for one halfpenny.

Mr Twiss said: “It would have been more money for a paper in 1937 than half a penny, I’m sure of it. The auctioneer seems to think it could be Victorian, right as they launched the title.”

Mr Bews used to work at a newsagents in the town as a paperboy in the late 1950s, but could not recall having seen the sign on any of the shops then.

When asked whether it could be from the very shop he worked at, Mr Bews said: “If that shop was there years and years before I took papers, it could be!”

The pair are now hoping that someone else might have the answers to the mystery of the sign’s origin, and can shed some light on how it ended up buried in a garden.

Mr Twiss said: “You do see on facebook photos of old Maltby and hopefully with this story somebody may come forward. You never know, somebody may have a photo of the shop with the sign on!”