I began hoarding taps, spare parts, wastes, cistern fittings, mixers and so on back in the 1980s and 90s, when as Alscot Bathroom Company I specialised in restoring and selling antique bathroom fittings. In 1999 my colleagues and I rescued the original Victorian company, Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd., and we felt obliged to begin manufacturing exact, authentic reproductions - not least in order to show that it could be done. The repro sanitaryware available at the time was lamentable. Within a year or two I had reluctantly given up the restoration of antique fittings due to lack of time. Norman Cockcroft had bought my previous business and still runs it today. My taps and spares then remained in storage until 2016 when I sold Crapper & Co. to a much larger family concern in Yorkshire.
 
Now I have sorted through the thousands of parts and, having made some sense of it all, I must dispose of the lot. I believe it will be of interest to the trade, especially because in the hundreds of boxes there are many things that hardly ever turn up these days. Most of it is now neatly laid out in a warehouse just outside Stratford on Avon, near the erstwhile Crapper offices.
 
The main building is a small aircraft hangar, which I jokingly call ‘Noah’s’. Why? It is right at the top of a hill in Warwickshire, just about as far as you can get from the coast anywhere in Britain and, for many years, it was the premises of a company that built sea-going boats. I imagine they must have got quite sick of passers-by asking “Are you expecting rain, mate?!”
 
The hoard does not consist of just taps and fittings: there are baths, wooden basin cabinets, cistern syphons, iron basin brackets, wooden loo seats, lots of reproduction Thomas Crapper sanitaryware and antique pieces too. Additionally there are over 50 Victorian chimney pots and no fewer than five cast-iron gentlemen’s street urinal buildings. All for sale very cheaply as I must give up the warehouse and several of my storage barns. There are a number of period trade catalogues available too, as I have other copies of them so I can let the extras go. These are not cheap but they are devilish hard to find and full of valuable information.
 
Those who visit may also be interested to see some of my personal ‘museum of the bathroom’ and get a preview before it too is offered for sale. It is a very large private collection of antique loos, basins, taps, baths &c. from the early Victorian period right up to the end of the 1950s, as well as hundreds of salesmen’s samples and trade catalogues. Amongst the many quirky pieces there are items once owned by the royal family, a loo from Harrods and a Wartime potty with Hitler’s face in the bottom.
 
I greatly expanded the collection when I took over Crapper & Co., as I told myself that a 150-year- old firm should have a private collection and archives, so I provided my own excuse to collect even more. Now I cannot keep it all so the intention is to offer it as a complete collection, just in case anyone else out there wants a sanitaryware museum. So far three individuals and one heritage organisation have approached me about that possibility.
 
However I am unsure if anyone will actually commit to buying the lot, so if there are no takers then it will be broken up and sold piecemeal, which some would consider a pity but at least it would be good for the trade, as most of the contents are very rare and in excellent condition. Between other commitments I am slowly dusting and cataloguing everything. When it is all displayed and ready for sale I have promised to let Salvo know in plenty of time, as they want to do a feature on it.
 
I confess that I really miss the reclamation trade and I had seriously intended to return to it, at least in a small way. Unfortunately I have badly damaged my back, lifting cast-iron baths and other salvage over the years; I am sure many of you nodded your heads ruefully as you read that. I just dare not go anywhere near heavy lumps that I might be tempted to lift and put in the back of my car. So bits of old houses are out of the question. I am now kept busy as a consultant, giving advice on period bathroom and kitchen fittings.
 
Anyway, do please contact me and come and look through this stuff I need to clear. No-one will want it all; I always bought too much of everything. But most traders would find a few handfuls of parts, taps, spares and fittings absolutely invaluable and there is lots of other good stuff too.
 
The image caption should read 'Come and buy some of this stuff before I lose patience and scrap the lot'.
 
Contact Simon Kirby at [email protected]