Construction workers in the UK have found wads of cash dating back to World War II at a shop that once belonged to a tailor beloved by Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine.

Stunned renovators pulled bundles of decaying, dirt-encrusted banknotes from their clandestine spot under a shop floor in the seaside city of Brighton in May.

The face value of the wartime pot totaled around £30,000 -- the equivalent of about £1.5 million (just over $2 million) today, once the Bank of England's official inflation rates have been factored in.

Sussex police have since taken the moldy £1 and £5 notes for "safekeeping," a spokesperson told CNN. It wasn't immediately clear who owns the premises where the money was found.

The site has since become a Cotswold Outdoor clothing retailer, but back between 1936 and 1973, it was a Bradleys Gowns store. Bradleys was a top London furrier and couturier set up in the 1860s.

Howard Bradley is now the last remaining heir of the family name and the business, which has continued as a specialist dry cleaners in Milton Keynes, north of London.

He told CNN he was "shocked" but "very excited" when first contacted by a local reporter and informed of the historic discovery.

Bradley said he hasn't any ancestral tales alluding to the stashed cash but added that he wouldn't be surprised if someone had hidden some money away during the war.

To read the complete article, see:
WWII cash hoard found under floor of Churchill's tailor(https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/europe/wwii-cash-discovery-intl/index.html)

The mystery of a cache of wartime banknotes found under a high-street shop deepened yesterday as a second family claimed possible ownership.

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Second family lays claim to stash of wartime banknotes(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/second-family-lays-claim-to-stash-of-wartime-banknotes-dx03wl6lj)