A woman has shared how amazed she felt after finding 18th century gravestones in her garden.

Lesley Robins, 61, said that she was “fascinated” by the stones after excavating them during building works on her Victorian house.

She has since been digging deeper into the story behind the stones, with the oldest footstone appearing to date back to 1787.

Lesley, who lives in Trafalgar Road in Portslade, said: “I thought it was all rather fascinating. I have always found local history interesting but I never expected this to happen to me.

“When we unearthed them we were going at them with little shovels and paint chippers, it was quite amazing.

The Argus: Lesley Robins with the stones that she foundLesley Robins with the stones that she found (Image: Lesley Ribons)

“I’m originally from Brighton but my dad worked in Portslade, so to have this link to local history feels like it has all come full circle.”

Photographs of four footstones show several different dates on them ranging throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries. One stone has four different dates on it and is believed to have been used for a family grave.

Two more stones have been found at the property since the pictures were taken, although these have not yet been researched.

Lesley said that with the help of local historians they have been able to unearth more information about the stones and the land.

The Argus: One of the gravestones from the gardenOne of the gravestones from the garden (Image: Lesley Ribons)

Original copies of the deeds for the land from 1882 include it being sold to Henry Scrase, a local stonemason. It is thought that the footstones originally stood at St. Nicholas’ Church in Portslade and were then reused at the house when they fell down.

Lesley, who runs a rescue shelter for small animals, said that she intends to walk up to the church to see if she can spot the graves where the footstones originally came from.

The Argus: The original deeds for the houseThe original deeds for the house (Image: Lesley Ribons)

She also added that she intends to donate the original deeds for the house to the Portslade and the Past archives.

Lesley said: “I want to donate the original deeds as well. I love the history but they are of no use to me and I think they need to stay with the local archives.”