TALKING JUNK By RICHARD BARNWELL

Those who did not get to our October meeting missed a very entertaining night. Richard, a member of the Society, displayed & spoke about some of his large collection of memorabilia or junk as he called it. As an avid collector Richard told us how he got started with his ‘hobby’ & how it has virtually taken over his life & office space, even though he holds selling auctions. Books from the 1800s were passed around for closer inspection & items of great value to pieces that were worth practically nothing were shown. Audience participation was encouraged & Richard was impressed by the knowledge we had in identifying the more obscure pieces.
Richard spoke of clearing houses & being told the owners had thrown out ‘the junk’ because nobody wanted it & himself retrieving ‘the junk’ which was probably more valuable than the furniture that had been ‘saved’.
On being asked about his favourite ‘item’, Richard said that his wife, also interested in his collection, was his favourite closely followed by his childhood teddy bear & that amongst his collection many items were his favourites.
The meeting ended when Richard read a poem about Wisbech called ‘The Gem’ by John Hartford of Wisbech St.Mary.
Books, cookery items, farm implements & much more was on display and at the end of the meeting we were able to examine ‘the junk’ & Richard was kept busy answering questions & examining items brought in by the audience.
[Barbara Holmes]