Old Herald volume found outside Holland supermarket

But a bin outside a supermarket in Holland is probably not the best place for the Worthing Herald to market itself.

Esli Sieben, 22, from Sittard, a city in the south of The Netherlands, contacted the Herald on Facebook to say he had a bound volume of the paper from 1937.

It was discovered in February by his girlfriend Demy Bekker’s grandmother Riny in Geleen, a nearby city.

The trainee secondary school teacher said: “One day she came back from the supermarket and passed a container filled with garbage. She detected a big book lying on top of the pile of garbage.”

Curious, she took the book home – and when she discovered its contents, she called her granddaughter.

Esli said seeing the books sparked an interest in finding out more about Worthing. He said: “It looks like a nice and beautiful town on the south east coast of England.

“I would like to visit it the next time I am visiting the UK. At the moment my girlfriend and I don’t have the finances to do so, but this will be a matter of time.”

The football fan added: “The only place I know near Worthing is Brighton. Its football club was promoted to the Premier League last year.”

His home city has something in common with Brighton Albion – its club, called Fortuna Sittard, was recently promoted to the Dutch premier league after a 19-year wait.

For Esli, who lives a few miles from the German border, the Second World War is an area of interest.

As a child, he collected various historical items from the period and said he enjoys ‘reading as much as possible about history in order to get in touch with the past’.

So given the period of the volume, it was an eye-opening look at England before war broke out. He said: “When you read the book you learn about the items they used to sell through adverts in the newspaper. Some items can be recognised, other items I have never heard of before.”

His father Jo Sieben, a history teacher, was naturally interested as well. Esli said: “My father was very excited after reading the book!”

It has already clocked up a lot of air miles, but Esli is happy to send it back home across the North Sea.

They say do not judge a book by its cover – but this volume has had a story as interesting as many inside its pages.