I’M A DRILL SEEKER
TOOL FANATIC REVEALS HIS ‘SECRET MUSEUM’
A FORMER hardware shop owner, who has a “secret museum” of tools spanning two centuries, has spoken about his unusual hobby.
Val Pearson, who amassed his collection over the last 15 years, is keen to share his passion with a wider audience.
Until now, only business associates, friends and family have seen his collection, which is kept in an upstairs room at Bill’s Tool Store in Glasgow.
Among the hundreds of hammers, wrenches and drills, there are tools from the old Czechoslovakia, Russia and Poland.
One of the oldest tools he has obtained is a Mathieson wood-working plane that dates back at least 150 years.
Val, 74, from Lenzie, near Glasgow, used to own the store after it was passed down through the family by his father Bill.
It is now owned by his son Paul, 50, but father-of-three Val still works at the shop twice a week. He said: “I’ve always been interested in the tool game. “I just find it interesting to learn what people used years ago when it came to fixing things.
“I noticed I had quite a lot of old tools and we wanted to gather them together.
“I get the tools from literally everywhere – tool shops everywhere and sometimes customers come and sell me tools.
“You’d think it’s some sort of secret museum but it’s really a collection of old tools stored upstairs in a room which not many have seen.
“My tools date back to about the 1850s until now. I have no idea how much they would be worth these days.”
Val would love to see the tools go on public display one day. He said: “It would be nice to have them put in a museum
as they are now taking up a lot of space.
“When the collection was much smaller, I spoke to Kelvin Hall and the People’s Palace at Glasgow Green to see how we could go about it.
“They had mentioned everything would have to go through the council.
“I have all kinds of tools – everything under the sun – hammers, adjustable wrenches and screwdrivers.
“A lot of young people have never seen some of these.”