THE TREASURE TROVE OF MEMORIES

Found in a Scots charity bookshop, the poignant mementoes left between the pages

MOST of us at some point will have reached for something close to hand to use as a bookmark.

But these items – old photographs, cards or letters – can often be left, forgotten, between the pages for years or even decades.

Volunteers at one busy charity shop have, for several years, been carefully collecting these from the hundreds of books donated each week, and have now built up a unique treasure trove.

And the Oxfam branch on Byres Road, Glasgow, has put the impromptu bookmarks on display in an old suitcase in the shop.

The often poignant items includes a telegram from the Queen for a 100th birthday, love letters and a family photo album. There are also charcoal drawings from the First World War and a Navy identity card.

Store manager Roisin Murray, 33, said: ‘For the last 16 years, our army of 120 volunteers have been putting anything interesting in a box at the back of the store.

‘Then a volunteer came up with the idea of making the display for the annual Byres Road Book Festival. It proved so popular that the suitcase has become a permanent fixture.’

The store is now keen to reunite some of the items with their rightful owners, including a family photo album dating back to 1907. A love letter to a woman, Judith, from an apologetic former beau seeking forgiveness for his behaviour. Trying to convince her to forgive him before ‘it’s too late’, he recalls a ‘photo-shoot’ in Provence and time they spent in Galloway

Shop manager Roisin Murray with the old suitcase containing very personal items found inside books handed in to Oxfam

Another photograph from the family album. This image shows a woman dressed in formal clothing standing next to a large car while holding a terrier-type dog on a lead. A man, stroking a horse, can be seen standing in the background. The shop is keen to...

One of the most bizarre finds made by the charity shop is a first-place ribbon from the Will Addey Budgerigar Show in Vancouver, Canada, 1954

Membership card in the name of Andrew Gray, of Glasgow, for the Eagle comic boys’ club. Found in an envelope, it came with a badge and a book featuring famous men of the day

One of the most astonishing finds is this letter signed by the Queen and addressed to a man named Harry Wylie, offering her congratulations on his 100th birthday. Oxfam is hoping to reunite the letter with his family