ALFRED Brighten is one very happy and relieved 89-year-old after being reunited with old family photographs.Mr Brighten, who lives with his daughter Penny Much in Great Horkesley, had a series of photographs tucked away in an old sideboard.

ALFRED Brighten is one very happy and relieved 89-year-old after being reunited with old family photographs.

Mr Brighten, who lives with his daughter Penny Much in Great Horkesley, had a series of photographs tucked away in an old sideboard. When the sideboard was given to charity in November the pictures accidentally went too.

The photographs – some dating back to 1890 and featuring Mr Brighten as a child and young man, his mother, sister and other family members – were discovered by the Colchester-based charity Emmaus in an old sideboard and the search for their owner went out.

It was donated to them by Mr Brighten, known as Bill, at the beginning of the month, but he did not realise his precious photographs were still inside.

Mrs Much, of Grantham Road, said: "I am pleased and I thank Emmaus for returning the pictures to us, my dad would have been devastated if we had not had them back. You never replace photographs like these that have such a sentimental value."

Although his family had given up hope of ever finding the pictures, Mr Brighten always thought they would resurface.

Mrs Much said she had checked the old sideboard before it was given to the charity, but found nothing. The pictures were discovered hidden away when Emmaus workers were dismantling the old piece of furniture to restore it.

"We are very lucky they went to Emmaus because Caroline Wood from the charity collects old photos herself. She realised their personal value and that someone must be missing them," she added.

Emmaus is a charity that raises money for homeless people by restoring and selling old and secondhand furniture.