A woman obsessed with old plastic bags has entered the record books by collecting over 10,000 of them.
Angela Clarke, 55, from Aberdare, South Wales, has spent 40 years keeping and collecting the bags.
Some date as far back as 1954 and are classed as historical artefacts. The collection is worth thousands of pounds.
Her obsession began in 1976 when Angela, then aged 11, decided to decorate her family home with Union Jack carrier bags to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
After her collection grew she appeared on hit BBC show Multi-coloured Swap Shop with Noel Edmonds.
She said: “The whole collection just snowballed after I went on the show, the BBC had hundreds of bags sent in for me.
“I had bags sent in autographed by designers and bags sent in from the House Of Lords.
“Somebody went abroad for the Olympics and remembered that I’d been on Swap Shop and got in touch, so I started having bags from abroad.
“Shops started closing and things moved on and I thought I’ve got pieces of history here of shops that were once loved, shops like C&A, Woolworth, BHS.
“I’ve got Tesco’s throughout the years, right from silver jubilee, I’ve got Asda bags when Asda first started and places from abroad like JCPenney.”
Angela keeps her massive collection in purpose-built storage at her husband’s factory.
She added: “I’m not supposed to add anymore according to my husband but I just can’t resist. He’s used to me now, we’ve been married 47 years.”
Despite the collection’s value, Angela says she will never part with her bags.
“They are still mine, they are my babies but I do joke with the kids that it’s up to them what they do with them,” she said.
