On this episode of Bragging Rights, we tour a Leeds woman's jaw-dropping collection of Disney memorabilia and even get a peek at her Harry Potter themed loo.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to another brand new episode of Bragging Rights. If you don't know by now,
00:05 it's where we offer the chance for our roaming reporters to be big old show-offs and shout
00:10 about their home patch. But who can shout the loudest and convince me that their little
00:15 corner of the world is the best?
00:23 The North East soared to victory last time out, topping the country's tourism attractions
00:27 with the splendid Angel of the North. But this time we're looking for the most amazing
00:32 collections and so we'll be casting our eye over everything from paintings to punk records
00:37 and talking to people who probably need a little bit more room in their lives.
00:42 But first we're off to a house in Leeds or as the owner puts it, her Disney castle.
00:48 When you're a collector you never stop collecting. Things just appear in your house, whether
00:53 it be every day, every week, every month, every time I take a trip. I will never ever
00:58 complete this collection, it will just only keep growing. As long as Disney keep making
01:02 items I will keep collecting.
01:04 My name is Katherine Hamilton, I live here in Bramley, Leeds, also known as the Disney
01:09 castle of Leeds. So obviously you're going to be looking at my Disney collection which
01:13 spreads the whole entire place of a house or castle. I developed my Disney Facebook
01:19 page after taking my son Archer, who I think was about three years old when we first started
01:23 going. We went to Disneyland Paris and after going a few times I thought actually I can
01:28 kind of spread this magic around, so spread a few tips and stuff. So I made a Facebook
01:32 called Disneyland Paris Tips and Fan Page and just spread a little bit of Disney magic,
01:36 helping people book their holidays and things like that. That's developed over the years
01:41 and I now do shopping for people so when I go on holiday I can pick bits and pieces up
01:45 for them and send it anywhere in the world. Obviously on the back of going to Disneyland
01:49 Paris so much means you get a lot of Disney items, hence why I'm now a collector. Not
01:55 just me but obviously Archie as well, it has overloaded into his bedroom, he's a massive
02:00 plushie collector of Disney so all things Disney plush and he can't throw them away
02:04 as I mentioned because you know they may have feelings, Toy Story and all that, and I feel
02:09 a bit guilty too. And then Poseidon, my new little baby, he has also started a little
02:14 collection of his very own of Mickey Mouses as well. I've got many many items and every
02:19 single item whether it be of a high value or a low value means a lot to me. Obviously
02:24 it is nice to have some rare items that are a little bit rarer either financially or just
02:29 sentimentally. So I'm part of the Inside Ears group over in Disneyland Paris which is like
02:34 a bit of a media team and on the back of that the Marvel Hotel which used to be called the
02:39 New York Hotel. It was a New York themed and the Inside Ears sent me over a little bundle
02:45 and in that I got a fragrance because in the hotel that used to be there was a fragrance
02:49 pumped through the hotel to make it smell like New York. They sent me a bottle of that
02:53 which is completely unavailable now and also a shower curtain. So my shower curtain is
02:58 actually from the hotel in Disneyland Paris. I feel like a celebrity when I go to Disneyland
03:02 Paris because I'll just be walking around the park and they'll be like "Hi Catherine!"
03:05 and it's like "Oh hi! Do you follow the page?" and I'll be like "Oh yeah sorry!" because
03:09 they feel like they know me as well because I speak to everybody individually so much
03:13 like when I come across on the camera to them. I'm sure a lot of people on my page would
03:16 agree with me that a lot of people that like Disney it's very magic that's why we love
03:21 it. Magic kind of then also floating obviously to Harry Potter. So I find a lot of people
03:27 that like Disney also like Harry Potter and vice versa. So I do have another collection
03:32 that kind of leads down my staircase and I have got my very own Diagon Alley. So every
03:37 time I come to bed or use a bathroom I have to walk up Diagon Alley with the hand-painted
03:42 glitter ceiling which took me about two or three weeks. I think with Disney and Harry
03:46 Potter in my house was not probably a more magical house in Bromley that's for sure.
03:53 Well that's cheered me up but where to start? The wallpaper, the shower curtain, the stairway,
03:58 the Ministry of Magic in the toilet. I bet the Disney shop roll out a red carpet when
04:03 they see Catherine coming down the street but hey if you're going to do something you
04:06 may as well go all in and who am I to criticise after all the toys do have feelings. Now then
04:12 have you ever wondered where Paul O'Grady's lawnmower is kept? No? Nor me. Located in
04:19 sunny Southport the British Lawnmower Museum is a celebration of one of our most ordinary
04:25 household items. Enter the fascinating world of this internationally famous museum and
04:31 the restored exhibits are devoted to keeping a small part of British engineering heritage
04:35 alive. It's one of the reasons why we started the museum because the British engineering
04:41 in the garden machinery industry it was the best and one of the biggest in the world and
04:46 sadly we've lost such a lot of it. So we started collecting the machines as the companies
04:54 closed down. But where did the idea for such a machine come from? Well the lawnmower was
05:02 patented by Edward Beard Budding in 1830. He was working in a textile mill in Stroud
05:08 Gloucester where he designed a machine initially to trim the nap off cloth. His revolutionary
05:13 idea was to use it to cut grass. People thought the idea was pretty eccentric at the time
05:19 so he tested the machine at night so no one could see him. The museum supplies lawnmowers
05:25 and garden machinery for film and TV. Most recently the Downton Abbey film where Brian
05:31 says if you look closely you might spot his feet in the shot too. Quite often supply lawnmowers
05:38 for films and TV programmes which is quite a nice thing just to get so it's authentic
05:44 for the programme. We had a call from Brian May from the Rockvan Queen and he just rang
05:49 up and said it's Brian May here would you like my old lawnmower and he wanted it to
05:53 have a happy retirement. From there we've got Paul O'Grady, Hilda Ogden, Dean Alexander
06:00 from Coronation Street and Nicholas Parsons, Eric Morkhams. I know we're all keen to do
06:08 our bit when it comes to climate change but did you know that just by having grass in
06:13 your garden you are helping? Grass plays a crucial role in producing oxygen. In fact
06:20 it produces it at a rate greater than trees. Included in this unique national collection
06:26 are manufacturers not normally associated with the garden industry such as Rolls Royce,
06:31 Royal Enfield, Dennis and many more. With technical and industrial artefacts from the
06:36 Victorian and Edwardian eras. London Zoo was one of the first companies to buy a lawnmower
06:44 and they had it pulled by a camel. A camel is perfect because its hoof spreads out and
06:49 you don't get hoof marks into the freshly cut grass. In a survey the top smell came
06:57 out to be freshly cut grass and things like that. It creates things in your memory of
07:04 sunny picnics on the lawn and that sort of thing. The British Lawnmower Museum in Southport
07:11 is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm. Now, does anyone know how to turn this thing
07:18 on? Well it's easy and tempting to be dismissive but then comes an interesting fact after an
07:28 interesting fact right up to the point where we're treated to a camel driven lawnmower.
07:33 You weren't expecting that today were you? Right enjoyed that little lot, where to next?
07:38 How about a musical interlude in Newcastle? At a guess I would say maybe 50 or 60. That's
07:45 purely if my wife's watching. In real life I've honestly no idea. That's thousands. I
07:55 couldn't even pick a figure. I've never once counted them.
08:00 Paul has been collecting punk records for a long time and has always loved punk rock
08:05 music since he was a teenager. I would have been a teenager, probably 14, 15 when I first
08:12 heard punk. The Old Grey Whistle Test is how I first remember seeing punk. I'm sure it
08:19 was 999 I saw. Wow, because at the time there was nothing like that. I liked a bit of glam
08:25 rock but then when I saw this, that's my kind of music. I can't remember the first record
08:33 I bought but I'm sure it was around about 1978. I used to get my dinner money off my
08:39 mam, make sandwiches when she went to work and then eat them and use the dinner money
08:44 to buy records. And that's when it started. Vinyl addiction. Back in the day it was easy
08:51 to get records. All bands produced records. There was no downloads of CDs or anything.
08:57 So it was cassettes or vinyl. I got some cassettes but I preferred vinyl. Then as time progressed
09:05 CDs came and there was a massive lull in vinyl. A lot of bands never bothered releasing vinyl
09:12 albums but then the last few years it's just peaked again and everybody's releasing vinyl
09:17 and I love it. Paul has an entire room in his house dedicated to his record collection
09:22 and it features a lot of rare records. He also has a huge collection of CDs which take
09:28 up about three bootcases. Nearly every inch of the room is either covered in records,
09:34 memorabilia or posters of some of Paul's favourite artists. When the postie comes to the door
09:39 with a package she shouts to tell Paul's wife that he's ordering more records. And now if
09:44 Paul comes back from a gig with a record he can't even hide them from his wife because
09:48 she knows exactly what he's done. Paul said he prefers to actually listen to the records
09:53 in his collection instead of keeping them on display and never listening to them. But
09:58 Paul may have to reduce his collection soon after a decision was made to move abroad.
10:05 We've decided we're moving to Turkey. So I've been looking into getting me records across
10:12 to Turkey and the company who does removals don't, they normally do furniture and stuff
10:19 but seeing it's records they can't give a price so they've had to give a price per kilo
10:26 and with just a very quick estimate it's going to cost at least two grand just for the records
10:32 alone. But I've also been checking out how safe my records are going to be in Turkey
10:36 because I've been concerned about the heat. But apparently it's sunlight that causes the
10:41 problems so as long as they're out of the sun the heat shouldn't be too much of a problem.
10:47 And there's me thinking his biggest issue would be dusting that lot and not moving them
10:51 to Turkey. Good luck with that. It was an interesting film but I really really wanted
10:55 to meet Paul's long-suffering wife. But look on the bright side, sometimes it's best that
10:59 us men are just out of the way and not causing trouble. Now let's have something completely
11:04 different. Pop on your overalls, it's time to go painting the town red and other colours.
11:10 We are doing a 650 paint jam which is kind of like looking at what Upfest would have
11:16 been but without spray paint. Kind of looking back at the Renaissance period but also a
11:20 celebration of Bristol 650 and where the city's come from and where it's going to. In proper
11:27 Bristol fashion, the city is celebrating its 650th birthday in the only way appropriate
11:33 with some incredible street art. Brought to you by Bristol City Centre Bid and curated
11:39 and organised by world-renowned street art festival Upfest, residents, visitors and art
11:45 fans alike can prepare to witness 10 streets artists transform the city with a Renaissance
11:50 inspired paint jam. It's now time for a short ad break. Don't go away, we'll be back in
11:56 a couple of minutes. Welcome back, we're off now back to Bristol to see how the artworks
12:02 are getting on. Great projects being funded by the Bristol City Centre Bid and you know
12:08 they're all about sort of you know driving sort of like footfall sort of like to the
12:11 areas supporting kind of like traders which are here and so by sort of bringing us in
12:17 and other sort of organisations to do kind of cultural activity it makes it for a more
12:21 interesting sort of like city centre. I think it just you know it brings a brings even more
12:25 creativity to this area and it also sort of you know is here to sort of drive more sort
12:31 of footfall to this area sort of Park Street and sort of around here. The sort of creativity
12:36 and bringing it onto the street it's not like it's in a gallery or a museum it's you know
12:40 it's free for people to come and view which is kind of what street art's about really.
12:45 People have to engage with it you know whether it's positive or negative you know they get
12:49 something to talk about. When walking around the city of Bristol one thing that can always
12:54 be seen is street art and big names such as Banksy has emerged as Bristol talent from
12:59 the street art scale. A hopefully pretty picture about the history of Bristol on this window
13:07 which has been covered in plastic. The brief was 650 years of Bristol so a little bit of
13:15 research going back to the 14th century seeing how the buildings and the houses were bringing
13:19 it right up to today. So my petition of peace will run from the left hand side in the 14th
13:26 century all the way through to the right hand side which will be up to today. It's another
13:32 string to the sort of Bristol bow of all the great things that we have here to attract
13:36 visitors you know so that's kind of like one element but equally it's just that thing of
13:40 sort of that mundane thing of walking to work every day and suddenly you see something that's
13:45 a bit different or makes you question you know what's going on in society or whatever
13:48 and it's about that basically it's just and ultimately just make people have a little
13:52 grin on their face as they walk past. When people have problems like most of us have
13:59 today walking through streets of concrete walls, parking signs, prohibited this, prohibited
14:09 that signs is just depressing. So if you can get old at what is just a grey wall and convert
14:16 it into something that just might make someone smile, personally I think it makes our cities
14:22 look much more attractive. Well that's nice isn't it, properly brightening the place up
14:28 and the artist at the end saying it's not just about art but making people smile. Although
14:33 can you really go to a street art festival in Bristol without constantly wondering if
14:37 one of them's Banksy and how would you know? I'll leave you musing that conundrum as we
14:41 fly up to Glasgow for a bit of a history lesson. Because you say to anyone in Glasgow you know
14:49 do you want to know something about architecture and social history folk will go nah you're
14:53 alright mate. You say to anyone in Glasgow mate do you want to hear a good story? I'm
14:59 Norrie Wilson, journalist, historian, gad about, Glasgow worthy and I run the Lost Glasgow
15:11 site. So Lost Glasgow is quite iconic in Glasgow, it's a collection of photographs essentially.
15:20 So how did this all come about? It's a strange one, when I quit newspapers probably about
15:26 10 years ago I was aware there was a Lost Glasgow site which sort of mirrored what was
15:35 and still is an absolutely brilliant site called Lost Edinburgh but I didn't think the
15:40 Lost Glasgow site was as good as the Lost Edinburgh site and one night after perhaps
15:46 two bottles of wine I emailed them and said as much and said you should have a look at
15:51 Lost Edinburgh, they do it really well and you're just throwing these pictures away without
15:58 the stories behind them and woke up the next day and of course there's an email in my inbox
16:05 saying technically we are Lost Edinburgh and if you're so bloody smart why don't you
16:12 do it? And I said right, give it here. And that was the start of it, as much as it's
16:22 about the photographs, the photographs are literally just there as a sort of trigger
16:29 for the stories. Glasgow is stories, it's what we tell each other, it's not just the
16:34 stories that we tell about ourselves, it's the stories we tell about our friends, the
16:42 stories our friends tell about us and before you know it you've got this sort of lovely
16:47 spiral of stories which as I say is what makes Glasgow and that's the lovely thing about
16:54 the site, I mean I'll share a story and then folks share their stories behind. Before you
17:00 know it you're hearing stuff that otherwise you would never hear from strangers that tell
17:05 stories about our city. You can't put that in a box because it's stories and stories
17:11 grow arms and legs and all the rest of it and get better in the retelling. Every family
17:17 in Glasgow has got their own book of stories for want of a better, their own old photographs.
17:22 In the 1920s, the Daily Record, when they didn't have any big news stories on, they'd
17:27 send their street photographers out just to basically photograph kids in the street and
17:33 then they'd obviously try and sell prints of the pics to the mums and dads and you get
17:37 these wonderful pictures, snotty, nosed, dirty, mead, wains taken in back courts all over
17:45 Glasgow and all it says is 'Glasgow chums, 1923'. It's so easy to have stuff like this
17:51 lost forever and we're so lucky to have people like Norrie to spend the time and the love
17:55 preserving a past like this. And what's really interesting is it's not just about pictures
18:00 but people and voices which make them truly come alive. Last stop then on the Collectors
18:04 Trail and this time it's in Birmingham where another little slice of history has been perfectly
18:09 preserved. So we're here at the Coffin Works Museum and there's many things that make this
18:14 place unusual and I think what makes it unusual is also what makes it special. This factory
18:20 closed in 1998 and the last owner at the time, Joyce Green, and the workers, they sat down
18:27 their tools, they closed the door and many of them left for the very last time. I mean
18:34 as you look around this space here in the office, someone's left their shoes down there,
18:39 they've left their coat hanging up, a very expensive coat, in the cupboard and a cardigan.
18:44 There's a drinks cabinet which is full of pale ale and sherry and there's cigars in
18:50 there. There's a first aid box which is my favourite object in here which dates from
18:54 1943 and it's completely full. People come in here and they look at the Gestetner and
19:00 they say, "I remember those, I remember how messy they were." They look at the typewriters
19:06 but what I love about the Gestetner is that there's a date on there that says Wednesday
19:11 1st January 1997, closed for Christmas. So presumably somebody in '96 was getting ready
19:18 to close the Christmas holidays and that was one of the last things they ever photocopied
19:23 here, early form of the photocopier. So don't be put off by what you think is unusual about
19:31 this place, its death and its coffin fittings, because actually it's really about the workers
19:37 and their stories and the workers and their stories are as unique as the factory itself.
19:45 But actually what makes this place unusual is everything I've mentioned about coffin
19:49 furniture and coffin fittings, we can't get past that. And this company, they didn't just
19:54 make any old coffin furniture, they made the very best. They made the world's finest coffin
20:02 handles, backplates, breastplates, ornaments and they were that good that they sold directly
20:07 to the royal undertakers for most of the 20th century. So many a king, queen and prime minister
20:14 has ended up with Newman Brothers coffin fittings on their coffins. So time has stood still
20:20 in this room as well, the shroud room or the sewing room and one of my favourite objects
20:24 in here, it's a little bit unusual, a little bit quirky, is the fact that Newman Brothers,
20:29 they made shrouds, so garments essentially for the deceased, the dead, but not any old
20:37 shrouds. They actually specialised in football shrouds and here is our Aston Villa shroud
20:43 there because the directors at Newman Brothers were all Villa fans, but they were democratic
20:48 because they knew that they couldn't produce a Villa shroud without a Birmingham City shroud
20:53 as you can see and here's a sample of what they looked like. There's so much more to
20:59 learn about at the Coffinworks Museum and we're open Thursday to Sunday, 11 o'clock
21:04 to 3pm, last tour or visit is at 3pm. You can book your tickets online or you can just
21:09 turn up but we'd love to see you so come and see this great part of Birmingham's history.
21:16 It's a fascinating little time capsule but just a little eerie, not just because it's
21:20 coffin related but because it seems like time just stopped once and no one ever came back.
21:26 What on earth could have happened? We may never know but what we will know is who's
21:30 going to win today's contest as I give out some coveted points for the leaderboard.
21:36 One point can go to Birmingham's Coffin Museum. It looks like a fascinating place and an interesting
21:40 day out but there's something more of the effort and commitment of collecting that appeals
21:44 to dealers. Two points are for Bristol and their street art which they're so famous for.
21:49 We all need a bit of a cheer now and again, especially on the way to work. Three points
21:54 are going north to Glasgow for a very special and rich collection of social history that's
21:58 so important to their city centre. Four points are off to Turkey via Newcastle along with
22:04 our very best wishes to Paul and his poor long-suffering wife for their new lives abroad.
22:08 Let's hope the vinyl makes it intact and good luck to you both.
22:12 Now the next two were a tough decision but I'm giving five points to Southport and it's
22:16 more interesting than it sounds, Lawnmower Museum. Perhaps it was just the way it was
22:20 filmed but it made me very happy. I've added it to my list of must-visits next to the Derwent
22:26 Pencil Museum. So that means six points then are Leeds-bound.
22:30 When I think of a true collector it's Catherine's house that comes to mind. Jam-packed with
22:33 items everywhere, not room to swing a cat let alone a Mickey Mouse. An all-or-nothing
22:38 approach to the task in hand and a hobby which clearly gives the owner a whole lot of joy.
22:44 So congratulations to her. Don't forget you can catch up on any episode you've missed
22:48 at our YouTube channel but for now thanks for watching and join us soon for another
22:51 episode of Bragging Rights.
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