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For over 200 years Savile Row has been the spiritual home of fine tailoring, but now it is becoming a Mecca for historians too.

Newly discovered antique documents reveal that in bygone eras, the Row鈥檚 tailors were privy to far more than just the measurements of their famous clients.

However, unless these documents are preserved, important details about the nations past and the art of tailoring could be permanently lost.

Recently unearthed in the basement of one of London鈥檚 oldest bespoke tailors are hundreds and hundreds of books that may prove to be one of the most significant historical finds of recent years.

They include the tailoring measurements for Winston Churchill and Lily Langtree, the mistress of Edward VII.

Stretching back over two centuries, the tailor鈥檚 ledgers reveal more than just the measurements of the great and the good.

These pages offer up minute details about their finances, their social status and even the mistresses they supported.

It鈥檚 an astonishing find and yet this unique legacy could easily have been lost - forever.

Many tailoring firm鈥檚 archives have been lost during the war or during the 60s and 70s.

James Sherwood has been described as 'the guardian of Savile Row'.

He's on a mission to save the street's formidable past but it often feels like a race against time.

Rescuing the books in the basement of Henry Poole and Co is his toughest and most urgent project.

Some of the leather books haven鈥檛 been open in decades and many are in a poor condition.

Almost every establishment on the Row has a story to tell.

At No 1 Savile Row is an entire room of historical items which he has salvaged successfully.

These pieces include very rare RAF from 1918 and 1919 including a full set of medals complete with the uniform with the cap.

Saving this history isn鈥檛 just for display, it鈥檚 crucial to Savile Row鈥檚 future as Keith Levett explains:

"It鈥檚 very important that we maintain those ledgers, they are still in use. In a sense they are a working archive. There is a veritable mine of information if you know how to interpret it.

"Quite literally if we were called on to produce something like this again, this gives us pretty much everything we need to be able to do the job."

And some of the old ledgers are proving of value too. Restored and rebound they are being used by a new generation of tailors.

Saving Savile Row鈥檚 past isn鈥檛 just a case of preserving what鈥檚 gone, it鈥檚 about the past informing the future... the future of craftsmanship, the future of excellence and the future of British bespoke tailoring.

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