Nearly £200,000 in cash, stocks and bonds has been found in a dilapidated empty house where a reclusive couple lived for nearly 60 years.

The three-storey Edwardian home, in Malden Hill, New Malden, was so run-down that even squatters abandoned it.

It used to be occupied by John and Pamela Baker, who have now both passed away. After their deaths, relatives were traced earlier this year and the house is now in the process of being sold.

Piles of limited-edition Wedgwood plates, each with a certificate of authenticity, were found under the rotting floorboards of the three-bed house.

Rare coins, Victorian paintings and around 1000 books were also uncovered by workmen wearing masks, as they cleared tons of rubbish and hacked a way through a back garden which has become a jungle of brambles, foxes and vermin.

In the last few years, window sash-cords had broken and upstairs rooms had become home to pigeons, some of which had died in the back bedroom.

Eighteen months ago squatters tried to establish squatter's rights there but then gave up and left the house.

Kingston Council had taken out a charge on the house, boarding up the windows, cutting back the garden two years ago and paying for repairs to the house next door caused by leaks from the Bakers' house.

Neighbour John Harrison said: "They never had any visitors and had nothing done to the house for 50 years."