Invaluable memorabilia from an old shop’s history went up in flames, along with family belongings, in a night-time outbuilding fire.

Olds tills and a pony trap belonging to Leonard Holt, former owner of Holts Butchers in Witham’s Newland Street, as well as children’s bikes and sledges were destroyed by the blaze at the back of the building.

Firefighters are not treating it as suspicious, but it is not yet clear how it started.

* for full story see today's paper