stephentaylorhistorian

New House, New Display Space

I have been having rather a busy time of late, both in and outside of work. I’ve moved house 3 times in the past 2 years, but am now settled in my new house, and needed to get my collection back out. The challenge I faced was where to display my collection of relics, as previously I had them in a garage, but my new house doesn’t have one! So, I got a decent sized shed, (or so I thought), and had it erected on a solid concrete base. I lined the inside with thick plastic sheeting, put tongue and groove over the top of that, and used leftover carpet from my living room on the floor. Reason for this is to try and limit the amount of damp air that gets in to the shed, to minimise the chances of my iron/steel relics from rusting!

I managed to get all my original cupboards in the new shed, but soon realised I wasn’t going to have room to display the bigger items I have, (I am now looking for another shed!), so the pictures below are missing about 10% of my collection. Anyway, I have spent the last few weeks unpacking my relics and getting them back in to their display cupboards. Having not seen my collection for over 2 years, it was a bit like Christmas as I had forgotten some of the things I have!

All of the items in cupboards/cabinets/cases are ground dug by myself over the past 20+ years. I hate to think what tonnage of soil I’ve shifted over the years to recover all this stuff!

And just to make it abundantly clear, every single item in the collection is legal to possess. There is not one milligram of explosive or propellent in my collection, and all items are incapable of being used again for their original purpose. Having been recovering and preserving WW2 relics for more than 20 years now, I have had to build up not only a knowledge of the relics themselves, but also the laws governing the possession of military relics. My entire collection abides by current UK firearms legislation.

On to the pictures. I am a little OCD when it comes to displaying stuff, so you will notice there are an awful lot of labels in the pictures, as well as straight lines! Saves a lot of time when people come to look at my collection as I don’t need to tell visitors what everything is!

As I said earlier, I have run out of space in the shed, so some of my collection is in my house.

Again, just to make it totally clear, every item you see is completely inert and legal to possess. Cartridge cases have either been drilled, (and therefore visibly ‘deactivated’), or have had a small ball bearing placed inside so they rattle when shaken, again showing they are deactivated. There is not one live primer in any of the cartridges, and every single grenade and mortar is completely devoid of all explosive material.

The volume of WW2 relics still out there in the UK is enormous. I will be WW2 relic hunting for a lot more years to come, so am probably going to need more space quite soon!

I am pleased with the result, and hope you found my collection interesting.

26 comments

  7. That’s a really impressive collection, especially if it’s not all of it! I feel your pain having to move, it’s not fun and having all that to arrange, it was bsd enough when I did it with all my bikes and lego 🤣

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  8. Hi Steven, I am happy to see your collection nice and stored in a shed, my husband, Chris Higgins, has a shed full of Ww1 and 2 plus most of the house, but I commend you for preserving history, Chris don’t smoke, Gamble or Drink to excess, but he is an addict like you and many others, and our collecting journey has helped us to help Veteran’s and share their stories, I love watching you on TV with sugs, the passion that serious collectors like you and Chris is wonderful, I would like a room to my self, but alas poor me.

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  9. Hi Stephen,

    Fantastic collection – looks like the best mini WW2 museum in England!

    Do you have any digs lined up this spring? Let us know if you have, we’d be happy to drive up and join you.

    Hope you’re settled in you new house now.

    Kind regards,
    Marcus, Paola & Joseph (from Farnborough)

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  15. Terrific, Stephen. I’m sure that they fed me hardened castor oil at school so interesting to see it was used by the MoD for more useful purposes (the Drill Charge) than torture.

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