Leeds nostalgia: Stash of 100 £5 notes found in garden in 1948

A very honest homeowner appealed for help after he dug up a jar in his garden containing 100 £5 notes in February 1948.

After an appeal in the Yorkshire Evening Post the owners of the jar were found. The couple, Mr and Mrs A M McLean, were former occupants of the house and had apparently buried the jar during the height of the ‘invasion’ scare and were unable to find it when they moved out.

The money was found at the house of Mr H T Timberlake, of Harrogate. It was unearthed by Fred Calvert, a builder’s labourer of Regent Place, Starbeck, who was working there.

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Speaking to the YEP, Mrs McLean, who had then moved to Surrey, said: “There’s nothing very unusual about our story. Like a lot of other people, we decided to bury the money for safe keeping when we thought the Germans might try to invade England.

“We buried it in the garden and then were unable to find it. Now we’re very glad to think we shall have it back.”

In other news... in Leeds, a ceremony took place at St Anne’s Cathedral, known as ‘the blessing of the throats’. The Blessing of the Throats is a ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, celebrated on February 3, the feast day of Saint Blaise of Sebaste. Some of the city’s great and good turned up to undergo the ceremony, which purportedly helps prevent disease.

And finally, on February 6, a freak thunderstorm resulted in hailstones the size of marbles falling in Bradford.

The storm began at about 1pm with normal sized hail but quickly resulted in much larger pellets. During the storm, the sun shone throughout - a sudden drop in temperatures was blamed.