Cheers! I’m officially Britain’s dullest man
HIS collection of rare and unusual beer cans has just landed him the title of Britain’s dullest man.
But nick West is getting the last laugh after selling off sections of his 9,300-strong hoard to fund his retirement.
The 59-year-old began his collection in 1975 when he was 16 – after seeing a TV report about a man who sold beer cans to collectors in the US.
He started sweeping up empties during a house party hosted by a schoolgirl called Deborah – who would later become his wife. He said: ‘everyone thought I was weird because I went around collecting the empty cans for my collection.’
His first can was a half-pint of Heineken – and the oldest in the collection dates back to 1936. He said: ‘My wife and I drank nearly all the cans I’ve collected between us. I drank the beers and stouts and Deborah would drink the lagers.’ He added that Mrs West, also 59, had grown to resent his 40- year hobby because his collection was only small when they met. He said: ‘It’s had a massive impact on our lives.’
The couple had to build an extension to a previous home so they could fit in all the cans, before moving to a five-bedroom Victorian house so that Mr West could put them on display. But he has decided to whittle his collection – worth £25,000 – down to just 1,500 cans so he can buy a smaller house. He has sold 6,000 of them for £13,500 – which is helping to fund his retirement. And another 1,800 have been given to museum oakham Treasures in Portbury, north Somerset.
Mr West, of Langford, was recently named the dullest man in Britain in an online poll but said he was actually ‘really chuffed’ with the title. He added: ‘I’m never going to be most handsome or tallest so I’m quite happy with my mantle of dullest man.’