Look no further than the Stawell Newsagency, where owner Ian Pappin has stumbled across items, some that could be up to 150 years old.

Electrical fittings, old books, shoes, picture frames and paper tickets are among the treasures he has unearthed below his shop in Main Street.

Most interesting of all is his find of numerous confectionery containers, which date back to when the premises was a lolly shop in the mid 1800s.

By his own admission Mr Pappin watches too many episodes of the television program 'Time Team' and for the past two months he has been excavating the lower floor.

It was by chance he discovered numerous objects that have been more or less untouched for 150 years.

"Well I could see the confectionery tins were laying across the back and I thought I'll start digging in here and see what I come up with and a few of the confectionary advertising things popped up out of the dirt and so I just kept going," he said.

"All these and there's lots of them - old confectionery display cases have glass in them.

"Of course they had a lot of colour on them originally, but that has faded, there was a couple I found that still had the remnants.

"They would have looked quite spectacular when they were all lined up with their lids on and the confectionery displayed in them."

Mr Pappin has donated one of the part colour in-tact confectionery tins to the Stawell Historical Society, while the other is on public display at the newsagency.

"The only way you can find any of this is by hand, the majority of it I have just dug out by hand, from the building rubble," he said.

Among the number of intriguing items is a well preserved 1894 ticket for a grand concert at Stawell Town Hall.

Mr Pappin said despite the condition of some of the other items, all would have value because of their unique and locally historical significance.

"They would have a value because they are things that were typically just thrown away," he said.

Mr Pappin said everyday customers have been amazed by what he has found, with many of the items now in a display case at the front of the shop.

"There has been a lot of interest, for a lot of the locals it brings back memories and they always want to tell you their memories of the past," he said.

"I just thought it was important for the history of Stawell.

"What I believe was, prior to it being a newsagency it was Lawson's Bakery and a lot of our current customers remember it as being Lawson's Bakery.

"Apparently they held weddings and all sorts of things in here."

Mr Pappin is correct, however the site has a much sweeter story to tell.

In the Reminiscences of W J Rees (1935), the writer reflects on the shop through a piece titled 'The Long Straggling Street c1865'.

"The shop occupied as Crean's Cafe was first occupied by Mr Sonnenberg and while he was on a visit to his native land - Poland - was carried on by a Mr Sternberg," W J Rees said.

"On Mr Sternberg removing to the shop next to Carter & Son, this shop was taken over by Joe Parker, familiarly called 'Lolly' Parker."

Mr Parker was born in Ballarat in 1856, his mother born in England in 1817. For many years Mr Parker specialised in lollies before his sudden death from appendicitis.

He along with both his mother and father are buried at the Stawell Cemetery.  

W J Rees recounts that a Baker, Tom Chapman, then occupied the business before a Mr Crean bought it and extended it considerably, principally as a Cafe.

Today, it is a newsagents and Mr Pappin said he would like anyone with information about the history of the shop to share their knowledge with him.