Stuff and nonsense

Five collectors of unusual things, from taxidermy to tanks, tulips to teddies, explain their passions to COUNTRY LIFE

Tanked up

THERE’S a saying when it comes to car restoration: ‘You’re only one broken bolt away from an eight-hour job,’ reflects Jonathan Hickman, an armoured-vehicle enthusiast based in Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire. As a boy, Mr Hickman enjoyed the utilitarian vehicles his uncle bought from surplus auctions in the 1970s. ‘In those days, you could pick one up for £5,000 or less. As they’ve become rarer, they’ve become more valuable.’

Today, Mr Hickman’s ‘tank shed’ houses his M4 Sherman tank (a reliable, general-purpose tank with a 75mm gun used by the US and Western Allies in the Second World War), ‘the Sherman’s little sister’ M5A1 Stuart tank, an M5 half-track personnel carrier, currently ‘in a million pieces’ as it undergoes restoration, and three armoured cars: a Ford-built M8, an M20—‘similar to the M8, with a slightly different configuration’—and a Staghound T17E1, a ‘tank on wheels’. He also has a Series 1 Land Rover, a model used by the British Army almost as soon as it was launched in 1948. Over in Argentina sits another Sherman tank, which Mr Hickman bought ‘seven or eight years ago’, awaiting shipping to the UK. ‘Tanks are a bit like sweets—you have one and then you want another,’ he admits.

Trundling his heavy-duty arsenal to static shows in Britain is a thing of the past for Mr Hickman, as he grew tired of visitors clambering over them, demonstrating little respect for the financial or historical value of the vehicles. Instead, he prefers rallies on the Continent, where the battle scars of war can be readily seen: shrapnel marks on buildings and tanks erected as memorials. He admits that reenactment or ‘dressing up’ isn’t his core passion —the vehicles are—but taking part allows for an incredible sensory experience as the tanks clank and roll through the European countryside (the Sherman’s top speed is 25mph).