It comes straight from the heart – a quest to find the recipient of a bundle of decades-old love letters that had been hidden under floorboards.

The personal notes and postcards were discovered by Agnes Antoszek and her husband, Tomasz, while they were carrying out renovations to their three-bedroomed home in Kitchener Avenue, Gravesend.

All were dated 1974 and penned by several female admirers. Agnes and Tomasz also found a photograph they believe to be of one of the recipient's girlfriends.

Excited by their discovery, the couple took to social media in the hope of finding the letter writers.

The response was overwhelming, with many offering information.

Some even compared it to the 2010 movie, Letters to Juliet, in which a young woman tries to trace the author of a note penned to Shakespeare’s love-torn heroine.

“It is Gravesend’s love story and I would love it to have a happy ending,” said mother-of-two Agnes.

“He would have been 16 at the time and I would love it if we could find him. If someone found my old love letters I would love it if they gave them back.”

It was 41-year-old Tomasz who found the love letters while carrying out electrical work at their home.

“We had to lift the floor in one of the bedrooms. My husband was shouting ‘I have found your love letters’, and I was saying ‘What love letters?’.

"It is Gravesend's love story and I would love it to have a happy ending" - Agnes Antoszek

"They were all loose and there were 20 in total with the postcards. We went through them and have put them in order and they are now in a box.

“I tried asking my neighbours but they haven’t lived here that long. There was also a picture of a girl.

“The response on Facebook was amazing and I couldn’t keep my eyes off it the first day. It would be lovely if we could give the letters back, even if it’s just to a family member.”

Agnes posted her appeal on the community page Growing Up In Gravesend, where it has attracted scores of comments and been shared on Facebook.

One recalled attending the same local secondary school while another spoke of going to football with the young man in the 1970s and 80s.

Sadly, however, she was not one of the letter writers in Agnes’s collection.

She said: “He must have put them under the floorboards hoping he would take them with him one day. But he has then moved out and forgotten.

“It would be lovely to find him and give them back, or, if he is no longer around but has had children, I’m sure they would love to look at them.”