History of a family told through its hoarding
sir – Anyone who is concerned about hoarding, which is now recognised as a medical disorder (report, August 15), should visit Calke Abbey in Derbyshire.
Generations of its owners threw nothing away. When it was donated to the National Trust in 1985, it proved to be full of treasures revealing past lives.
The National Trust restored it to its original, jumbled condition, and it is a unique place to visit, opening doors to the past.
Margaret Barrett
Market Bosworth, Leicestershire
sir – I choose not to think of my hoarding as a mental illness, but the result of being brainwashed as a child during the Second World War, when we were told “A Squander Bug is watching you” and “Waste not, want not”. My grandmother’s words ring in my ears: “Don’t throw it away, it may come in useful one day.” Stephanie Leach
Teddington, Middlesex
sir – A short rummage at home has happily uncovered a 1977 local newspaper with a story and picture of my wife and me on our wedding day, leaving the church on a friend’s classic fire engine.
Please do not tell our GP. Graham Clifton
Kingston upon Thames, Surrey