Couple reveals the stunning discoveries they made while renovating their 165-year-old villa

Buying old properties can be quite a gamble. Sometimes, it needs a lot of renovation and other times, it turns out to be a treasure trove full of interesting items from the bygone eras. A young couple from the United Kingdom were not expecting to find a bunch of historical artifacts when they were renovating their 165-year-old Victorian home. 26-year-old Milly and her boyfriend Louis, 27, had acquired the keys to an archaic building in March 2024. Located in South Wales, the property was unoccupied for over 5 years and when they moved in, the couple realized they needed to work on the villa before they could call it home. But as they started clearing out the villa, they found an array of items that dated back to the time before WWII.

"We found a World War II helmet insert while unblocking a doorway that had been covered with brickwork and a certificate of authenticity for a piece of the cross of Christ," Milly told Newsweek. "We also came across a newspaper article from 1925 while lifting floorboards in the master bedroom. It centered around the death of Alexandra of Denmark, queen consort to the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1910." It has been 4 months since they started renovating the 7-bedroom property, which is called Belgrave Villa. Throughout the process, the couple has been updating their journey on social media and their videos have gained traction on Instagram (@belgravevilla) and over 1 million followers.

On their Instagram account, Milly and Louis shared everything from the first day when they got hold of the keys to the property. Then they shared videos on the renovation process where at one point the couple lifted the old floorboards in the villa to reveal lines of bricks and hidden doorways. They also shared what they found hidden deep inside the 165-year-old building. "Going to start the Belgrave museum," Milly wrote in one of their videos where she had fished out a wartime helmet insert, polish from the 1800s and a Christmas card from 1921.

"The Christmas card was found hidden in the floorboards on the top floor of the house by our plumber," Milly elaborated about the items. "The certificate of authenticity for a piece of the cross of Christ was found in a drawer in the house. Unfortunately, we found the certificate but no cross! The polish was found in the same cavity as the helmet insert." It is almost like cracking open a time capsule where most of the items discovered by the couple were in good condition. The large property also has a cellar and an old stable where they found more items.

"We are restoring it with the aim of turning it into our home," Milly told the news outlet. "The property had been built in 1859 and was used as a home back then, but through the years, it has also served as a doctor's surgery and more recently, as a bishop's residence. We actually purchased it from the Catholic Church!" While unblocking a doorway, the couple realized that the original doorway of the building had been built over and now it was backed onto a hall cupboard. "We believe it had fallen into the gap while being stored in the cupboard," Milly said about folding a wartime uniform as well. The wartime items apparently belonged to the previous owner of the house, a certain Dr. Cornelius Patrick Robinson, a name the couple discovered written inside the helmet insert.

"An Instagram follower managed to find out that he served as part R.A.M.C. and lived in the house between 1949 and 1986," she further explained, adding how she had been thrilled to get such an overwhelming response from the people online who also shared their advice and encouraged the young couple. According to the news outlet, the pair had initially thought that purchasing the Belgrave Villa would be a huge risk, but they ended up doing as much as they could on their own to reduce the renovation cost. 

You can follow Milly and Louis (@belgravevilla) on Instagram for more home restoration content.