ANYONE with an interest in the olden days of the Vale east of Evesham will be keen to see a new book will launched this weekend.

Written by Mr Lloyd Edwards, the book is about a former family home in Cleeve Prior, thanks to someone's careful hoarding of a pile of documents which went with The Laurels through the ages.

The Laurels, an L-shaped farmhouse, was bought by Lloyd's grandfather Mr William Leonard Edwards (Len) back in 1959.

"With it came a collection of 115 documents relating mainly to the house and also to a malthouse next to the Kings Arms," he explained. "I was only five when my grandfather bought the house but as I grew up I was aware of these documents, although I didn't see them until my he died in 1982.

"Not only do these documents reveal how The Laurels developed as an individual farmstead within Cleeve Prior but also that for 177 years it was part of a far larger estate centred on Newbold-upon-Stour.

"The documents also detail part of the history of a malthouse adjacent to the Kings Arms pub in Cleeve Prior. In total, almost 300 people from the Vale of Evesham and Cotswolds are referred to in some detail."

Lloyd is the son of Mike Edwards, the well-known local poet and now president of the Vale of Evesham Historical Society which is publishing the book.

He has inherited his father's love of local history and, since leaving the area in 1967, has gained a degree in archaeology, followed by an MA following his research into the early clay tobacco-pipemaking industry on Tyneside.

He and his wife, Jaquelyn, live with their sons Jonathan and Matthew in Jarrow.

Lloyd continued: "I realised from the work I had done at university that these documents were important and should be worked on but I didn't have the time, until about four or five years ago when I first started researching them." The result is his book called The Laurels: A Worcestershire Farmstead and its people 1555 to 1982.

Lloyd found out that six families owned the house and land which evolved into The Laurels during that period.

In 1555, it was owned by a Christopher Pilkington and his wife who were landowners in the area. In the early 1600s, Edward Pilkington, probably Christopher's grandson, built the oldest parts of the house which are still standing.

Then it went to William Rouse of the Rouse family from Newbold-on-Stour and six generations of Rouses lived there until the family line became extinct.

In 1852 it went to a Mr Charles Baylis, until his solicitor called in his debts and forced the sale of the property to John Smith Holtom in 1875.

He and his son and four daughters made use of the house until the last of them died in 1958 and it was sold with two acres of land to Len Edwards.

He was living next door at a house called The Kemises which had an L-shaped patch of land surrounding The Laurels'two-acre patch. Len sold The Kemises but kept the land to make himself a 10-acre smallholding at The Laurels.

Hundreds of people are named in the documents which are now known as the W L Edwards collection in tribute to Len.

The book is written in his memory although it is dedicated to Lloyd's family "for putting up with me!"

Lloyd said: "Initially, my intention was to edit and catalogue the documents for publication but I decided to seek further information and write a book about it." He said his main interest in researching history had been to investigate the tales to be told.

"When I was doing archaeology and people used to ask me what was the best thing I found, I would always say it was the answer to my next question," he said.

"In documents like this, there's a story to be told and I always enjoy finding out that story." The house has passed to another family now and the land is used for grazing. "And so the story continues," added Lloyd.

The Laurels: A Worcestershire Farmstead and its People 1555 to 1982 is being launched at Evesham Library on Saturday at 11am.