A SOLICITORS firm moving office after 77 years discovered a historical treasure trove in the attic.

Staff at QualitySolicitors D’Angibau were clearing their building on Boscombe’s Sea Road.

They discovered law reports dating back to the 18th century, photos, ledgers and strong boxes from the firm’s 121 year history.

Their favourite find was the original 1891 brass plate name plate, when founder William D’Angibau started the firm at the site of the now closed HSBC nearby on Christchurch Road.

Another highlight was a photo of a memorial to former solicitor Raymond Cook, the former personal pilot to the Air Minister, who was killed in a crash in fog on October 30, 1942.

Partner Fiona MacArthur said: “Some of it will go on display in the new office and we are talking to Boscombe Library about a little exhibition.”

There were ornate cash books darting back to the 1940s and 1950s.

There was a strong box that once belonged to Sir William Cooper, of the Cooper Dean estate.

And there was a locked book – the staff hoped it was a secret diary.

But after a locksmith opened it up, it turned out to be an “abstraction of investments” from around 1895.

The photos include William D’Angibau sitting on Sea Road in a horsedrawn carriage in 1910. The horses were stabled in nearby Roumelia Lane.

The office legend is that he was a very aloof man, who would only let workmen into his office after they had washed first, to avoid shaking a dirty hand.

One of the staff moving is John Baine, who has worked there for 43 years after joining as a 16-year-old.

He said: “I thought I would feel all right about moving but I went into a room where a colleague had worked for 50 years, and suddenly I started to feel a bit sentimental.”

Some staff won’t miss one part of the office. The cleaners always found it cold and doors shut for no reason.

Legal assistant Judy Shires saw a mystery woman walk across the room, only for her to disappear.

She said: “One of my colleagues said ‘you look like you have just seen a ghost’. I said ‘I think I have’.”

Staff are moving to a new office in the former Sea Road Diner across the road and to one of their Poole branches on the Nuffield Industrial Estate.

Sue Benoke, the practice manager, said: “We have been here so long, through the booms and the crashes and we wanted to keep serving the community.”