Prospective burglars should avoid breaking into the Bell Inn at Helmdon.  Reason: the licensee, Mr A G Brookhouse, is a collector of old guns – and he is a good shot, too.

Hanging round his walls are over a dozen old rifles and pistols.  There is the old blunderbuss, probably used in the days of Queen Elizabeth I…. the American cavalry sword used in the Civil War… a flintlock pistol, the type favoured by highwaymen … and there are other long-stemmed rifles used in Moroccan and North-West Frontier battle.

African War Club

Also on view are Mexican wooden stirrups; an 1850 Guinness bottle, a witch-doctor’s stick, an African war club, a rhinoceros hide whip and many other interesting treasures.

In fact, the Bell is a public-house and museum in one.  Helmdon villagers enjoy browsing through Mr Brookhouse’s treasures.

And they confess that the surroundings are far more congenial than a museum!

Mr Brookhouse has been at Helmdon for about three months.  How does he find village life after Birmingham?  “Very pleasant.  But the water here – it’s awful; I can’t touch it.  Now in Birmingham…..”

Mercury & Herald – 4th June, 1954