Dennis Huke's home is crammed with more than 200 gramophones.
He’s built up the collection from all over the country during the last 11 years – just as the rest of the world was converting to compact discs and downloads.
Dennis, 76, doesn’t just collect gramophones – he also has old records, the needles needed to play them, paintings and postcards that double up as records.
He has machines dating back to the 19th century, as well as novelty players from every era in music from the 1900s to the 1970s.
“I tend to like the more quirky styles,” he said, showing me a model VW camper van that whizzes around a record, picking up the tune as it goes.
There’s nothing he enjoys more than showing people his collections.
He admits that his children and grandchildren have grown bored of his gramophones and his endless enthusiasm for them, but he didn’t mind.
He has found new audiences in local schools where he takes along items from his collection to show pupils.
A variety of community groups as well as friends and strangers have been to his home and have been treated to ‘the tour’.
As I wandered around I spotted a tiny five centimetre diameter record hanging on the wall.
“It’s called the Queen’s Dolls House record and actually plays God Save The King. I stuck it onto one of the players with some Blu Tac and got it going,” Den explained.
Other curiosities include an encased gramophone doll, vanity cases and hat boxes that open up to reveal gramophones inside, a 1960s disco gramophone with lights that flash to the rhythm of the music and a host of portable and cabinet-style machines.
His oldest device dates back to 1887. It was in pieces when Den came across it at a market but he has since restored it and it’s now worth £6,000.
He even has an American-made machine – the Sonora.
He said: “When I first got my Sonora cabinet machine it was black with dirt but it looks like new now after a clean and polish.”
When it comes to the mechanics of a gramophone, Den is almost an expert, – although he would never admit it.
He explained how simple the workings of a machine were by showing me a gramophone he had fashioned himself from a cardboard pizza box.
When you have this sort of talent there is no need to splash out lots of cash on shiny new pieces when you can buy them cheaply and restore them.
Den said he could probably get £200 from a collector and squeeze £50 from a non-collector for the Sonora.
“One of the things that is driving down the prices is the fact that people don’t have room for the cabinet-style machines in modern homes because they are built smaller,” he explained.
Even in his own home many of his players are kept in boxes to save on space.
But he has taken great care in restoring them and they all play wonderfully.
The tone of the music gives a charming old-world feel to his home.
Den said: “I warn my neighbours before I have one of my sessions when I play a few in the evening.
“I do it about once a week. It’s actually important to play them occasionally so the springs don’t get stuck.”
It’s not unusual for the sound of old ragtime songs and renditions of Land Of Hope And Glory by the Welsh Guards to play into the evening.
Den’s love of gramophones extends to the old records, which he plays on them.
He originally went hunting for his first gramophone to play an old recording of himself aged 12 singing on BBC Radio after winning the award for best boy soprano at the Norwich Music Festival.
Now his collection of music extends to Salvation Army founder William Booth and speeches by HRH Edward Prince of Wales on Armistice Night 1927 and his last speech as King Edward VIII in 1936.
Den has a whole drawer dedicated to his most rare finds.
He said: “It’s all part of history. People say I’m an anorak – well, yes I am and hopefully I’m preserving the past as well.”
