The Strange Saga of Mr Squirrel
There's a slightly similar story in Joan Forman's The Mask Of Time concerning a Mr Squirrel of Norfolk; an elderly coin collector.
One afternoon in 1973, Mr Squirrel popped into a stationers in Great Yarmouth on the offchance that they would stock the little plastic envelopes he used to store his collection in.
The shop was located in a little cobbled yard, and was furnished in a manner befitting an Edwardian shop (complete with vintage till) - although it had a 'brand new' look about it. Mr Squirrel found that he was the only customer, and noticed that the shop was strangely silent - without even the hum of passing traffic.
He was served by a smart young lady in Edwardian-style dress, and was delighted to find that not only did the shop stock the envelopes he was seeking, but that they only cost a shilling for three dozen.
At the time, the decimal system was still relatively new in Britain, so it wasn't unusual for people to occasionally lapse back into thinking in terms of shillings. Mr Squirrel simply gave the young lady the decimal equivalent (presumably a 5p piece - although post-WW2 shillings were still in circulation then). She gave the proffered coin a long, hard stare, but accepted it without comment.
A week later, Mr Squirrel returned to the stationers, eager to snap up some more cheap envelopes. To his astonishment, the pathway outside the shop was now paved, not cobbled, and the 'brand new' interior of the shop now looked 'dark and weathered'. Moreover, the layout and stock were both completely different.
Mr Squirrel was served by an middle-aged woman who told him that the shop didn't stock the envelopes he was looking for, and never had. Moreover, she had been the only assistant for the past few years and had no idea who the "young lady" in Edwardian garb was who had served him on his last visit. And, she added, the shop certainly hadn't been redecorated since the last week.
Nevertheless, Mr Squirrel still had his envelopes as proof of his previous shopping trip - although he threw most of them out because they soon turned discoloured as if from old age. Ms Forman managed to obtain one of the remaining samples - 18 months after it had been purchased - and asked the manufacturers to analyse it. The results were rather ambivalent. Apparently, it was made of a type of Celluose - which would have been common in the 1920's (but certainly not in Edwardian times) - and appeared to be about 10 -15 years old.
So, it seemed that Mr Squirrel had bought brand-new 1920's envelopes from a brand-new Edwardian shop (which accepted decimal money) which had then aged 15 years over a period of only 18 months.