When a couple decided to replace the windows in their Victorian terrace home the last thing they expected to find was a copy of the Western Daily Press from 1878.

Marge and Tony Lock have the newspaper delivered to their home every day but rescued the fragile copy from a window frame where it had been wedged to keep out draughts.

Marge said: “We couldn’t believe it. The workman came through to find us and he was carrying this crumpled roll of paper very carefully in his arms. ‘You’re never going to guess how old this is, ‘ he said.

“I couldn’t believe it when we found out it was from 1878, the house was only built in 1870.”

The couple spent time trying to decipher the writing on the old western Daily Press, which was first published as a daily newspaper in 1858.

At the time the front page was given over to announcements and it is only inside that news of “the Balkan campaign” and the Russian Cavalry capturing Sofia can be found.

Advertisements in the 6,121st edition of the paper included a reader who sought a “clean domestic servant” and items for sale including keyless watches, gas chandeliers, raccoon furs and notices offering sea voyages from Cornwall to New York for 12 guineas.

Marge said: “We get the Western Daily Press delivered everyday so it was really funny to think someone else read the paper, in the same house, all those years ago.”

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