Collecting

Apart from historic photographs, unless otherwise stated, all photos on this site were taken by  members of my family. 

Please don't republish them without my permission.  Thanks.

© 2008 Mark Collins

10-06-2010

All my life I seem to have collected things and accumulated clutter.....

Antiques

Both Alan and myself are lucky to have inherited a few nice pieces. Due to limited funds most of the current activity is down to browsing antique shops and junk stores in the hope of a bargain, although they are harder to find these days.

Books
I read science fiction avidly and have a large collection of paperback novels and hundreds of others.  When we moved house our backs certainly knew we had them after shifting hundred of heavy boxes!  I have also recently started to complete some of my collections of hardback children's books - particularly Arthur Ransome, Malcolm Saville, and Enid Blyton.  It's amazing how the prices of the early editions are beginning to rise - although bargains can still be had!

Bottles
As a teenager I spent many hours searching local dumps and other places for buried antique bottles. I still have a small collection (in the attic!), although am not looking to grow it further now.

Cigarette Cards

Again, this was something started by a few sets inherited from my father.  I occasionally add to the collection, particularly where there is a railway theme to the cards!

Family Photographs

Something of a passion!  I have amassed an enormous collection of scanned images which are catalogued to preserve them for future generations.  In order to secure these I go to extraordinary lengths - even carrying a flat bed scanner to Canada when visiting relations in British Columbia as hand baggage and sitting up all night in our RV scanning old photos of family members!

These images are so precious, and it is surprising how easy they become lost or the identity of the pictures' subjects forgotten.  Of course I am now paranoid about computer backups, copies of the data are now on several different computer media and stored in different locations.  Many of these pictures feature on my genealogy pages.

I would like to express here my sincere gratitude to all those relatives who have been so willing to allow me to scan their albums and to supply cups of coffee as I operate the scanner for sometimes hours at a time - many many thanks.

Matchbox labels

I inherited my dads large collection and, when I was a boy, added some more - otherwise this is an ex-hobby!

Model Railways

Following on from my interest in railways (steam engines being top of the list, they seem to have 'soul' somehow), since a boy I have been a model railway enthusiast.

Although my model railway has only existed in boxes for the past 25 years, I am still an active collector of rolling stock, with the LNER being my favourite railway company (of course I am tempted by items of other regions too!).

One day I hope to build a new layout!

Postcards
I have been collecting postcards since I was a kid and have many antique ones. These days I only actively collect postcards of places connected with my family, in particular Tunbridge Wells, Chiddingstone and surrounding areas.  Of course I keep anything else interesting that comes my way!  I have selected some of the more interesting ones and included them in my Antique Postcard Album.

Plants

Probably our most active collection, see gardening!

Stamps

When a young lad I was given my first stamp album as a birthday present by some family friends, Peter and Wendy Newbury. I am still collecting today, although less fanatically than I used to. Although I still have my world albums, I focused on UK only at about 15 years old and since then have collected British used & mint stamps as well as first day covers.