Renovation work halted this week at Oakham Museum's new 'Rutland Folk' extension, when a vault was discovered containing a hoard of never seen before films, depicting everyday life in Rutland at the turn of the century.

'You can imagine our surprise', said Museum curator Dr. Isabel Ringing '...when the builders of the new extension inadvertently demolished the wrong building and uncovered a hitherto unknown cellar containing a vast collection of films'.

'They are mostly depictions of everyday life in rural Rutland, but some contain agricultural workers getting quite dirty. But what was more surprising was that everyone in the films was speaking in Old Rutlische, the lost language of Rutland'.

Ms Ringing continued, 'Old Rutlische is purely a spoken language, and has no written form, so these films will provide us with a fascinating insight into its structure and usage. And thanks to a grant from the British Museum of Languages we are hopeful that with the aid of AI, we will be able to translate it and maybe one day teach it in schools.'

In a story that mirrors the misleading 'Rutland Sea Dragon' controversy, where no dragon was discovered, only a big fish, so 'hoard of mucky videos' turns out to be collection of films of muddy farmers.

For those that have time on their hands, and would like to hear 'Old Rutlische', Oakham Museum have digitised a selection of the 'better' films and they can viewed here: