WHEN David Davies first laid eyes on Bay Tree Cottage he was taken aback by the state of the place.

The derelict old cottage, parts of which are between 200 and 300 years old, had been left to rot.

But Mr Davies saw its potential and has spent the past year, and hundreds of thousands of pounds, renovating the cottage, in Main Road, Hockley.

When the 46-year-old started the ambitious project, he had no idea he would uncover an array of treasures.

Crumbling newspapers from centuries past, old banknotes, Victorian furniture and early 20th century football boots are among the bric-a-brac he has found so far.

Now he is keen to unravel the mysteries of the cottage and hopes to hear from Echo readers who may be able to shed light on its past.

He said: “When I first saw the cottage, it was a total wreck – I couldn’t believe it. You could hardly get in at first, it was so overgrown. The previous owners were somewhat reclusive apparently and the cottage hadn’t been lived in for some years.

“When we first went inside, there was still food in the cupboards. We found some really unusual stuff in there like bank notes and a Times newspaper from 1798.

“We dug out a well, which was 40ft deep, and found a pair of football boots in there. We think they were from the 1920s with cork studs and there was also a gas mask.”

Mr Davies, of Bullwood Hall Lane, Hockley, bought the house at auction about a year ago.

He originally planned it as somewhere for his elderly father to live, but is now not sure about its future use.

The cottage was in such a bad state that much of it had to be rebuilt, brick-by-brick, with advice from Essex County Council’s heritage department.

The father-of-two said: “The cottage was almost leaning over and the whole place was totally rotten. But I saw its potential.

“Lots of people in Hockley know some stories about the place and I’m trying to collate all that information together.

“We’ve been told by lots of people that it’s the oldest property in Hockley – some people say it’s 400 years old.”

Local historian Paul Taylor said a family called Barnes owned the cottage from the middle of the 19th to the mid-20th century.

He said: “The Barnes were coal merchants and at one time Mr Barnes was the undertaker in Hockley.

“The cottage is certainly 200 to 300 years old. It’s been so overgrown recently, most people didn’t know it was there.

“Hockley is a very old village and was mentioned in the Domesday Book.

“When they extended the nearby Bull pub they found timbers dating back to the 14th century.”

Anyone with information about the cottage, at 50 Main Road, can e-mail Mr Davies on: dave@football1966.com, or pop a letter through the cottage’s door.