Items of Special Interest

The Warm Bucket was left to Dennis by his grandfather. Dennis keeps it in the Miscellaneous Shed. The bucket contains an unidentified glutinous substance which remains warm in the coldest weather. Dennis believes that one day he will harness its power and become rich.

Also in the Miscellaneous Shed are the Statue of Liberty Standard Lamp and Dennis’s Thinking Chair which assists problem solving.

The Beehive stands in Dennis’s bedroom and is used for his dirty clothes. When he runs short of socks or shirts he pulls old ones out through the bees’ popping hole at the bottom of the hive. As a boy, Dennis bought The Folding Canoe from an advertisement in Exchange and Mart. The canoe is now stored in his wardrobe; he’s still trying to unfold it.

The Universal Shovel, also bought from Exchange and Mart, has a folding blade and a hollow handle containing every possible tool anyone could ever want in an emergency. It is, however, impossible to get them all back once the handle has been emptied, as Mr South found out to his cost in The Universal Shovel from the album Archive Editions 3.

The Mullard (or the Radiogram) was bought by Dennis’s mother as a young woman. The disc hoppers are used to store coal and kindling. Gran still fiddles with the knobs, trying to find Dick Barton, Special Agent.  Dennis warms up on cold mornings by pedalling through the William Tell Overture on The Pianola; occasionally Gran asks him to pedal Danse Macabre.

The Dresden Shepherdess with the Bad Cold is a china figurine with a broken nose replaced upside down by Dennis using rather a lot of Seccotine.

The Peek Frean is a biscuit tin closely guarded by Gran, containing family documents Dennis has never been allowed to see.

Inside the LNER

Outside the LNER