I’ve been in my house for more than 16 months now, so not exactly ‘new’, but kinda is! Anyway, in a previous post I showed a large shed I had built in the back garden to house my collection. However, I underestimated the space required and about 10% of my collection had to stay packed away in boxes as I physically couldn’t fit it in. If you haven’t seen it yet, below is a link to my post showing what is in the big shed…..

New House, New Display Space

What with work, doing up the inside of the house and various other things, this second display space kept getting pushed back. However, I have finally got round to getting another shed to house the rest of my collection. Most of it is bigger items like ammunition boxes and aircraft parts, but I also still had the finds from three of the episodes of WW2 Treasure Hunters. There are quite a few unusual bits that I had completely forgotten about, like the Mosquito night-fighter exhaust, German propaganda grenade still with the leaflets, and a Bren 100rnd magazine loading frame.

Like the big shed, I have lined this one with damp-proof membrane, sealed all the gaps in the wood and laid carpet tiles on the floor. All this is to try and reduce the amount of moisture getting in and so reduce corrosion of the metal. Also installed lights and camouflage netting on the ceiling, to give it a military feel, (like the relics don’t give it enough of one!).

I would still like, at some point in the future, to get everything in one ‘room’, but that will have to wait. I’ve got a lot of stuff in the house as well, which does split everything up and makes it slightly less impactful, but one of the benefits of living alone is that I can put whatever I want in my house! Having two 6 foot cabinets of grenades and small arms cartridges in the living room; a hearth covered in artillery shells; a mantlepiece stacked with 303s; 2 shelves full of 3D printed WW2 weapons; AND a spare bedroom full of 750 WW2 books, shed loads of models, plus shelving full of ammo boxes, gas masks and Vickers water chests, does exemplify this somewhat.

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 an extensive knowledge of the relics themselves, but also the laws governing the possession of military relics. My entire collection abides by current UK firearms legislation.

Anyway, time for some pictures. I forgot to take an up to date shot from outside the new shed, and the layout has changed a smidge since I took the pictures today, so the first two pics show an inside layout that has changed a bit. Sorry! Like my main collection, everything is labelled as my OCD demands it. The majority of this stuff is ground dug, or found on the surface. There are some carboot finds, (like the baby’s gasmask, jerry cans and a couple of the helmets), and a few bits from my friend Inka over in Norway, (the German bits, found in an old German camp dump pit in Norway).