00:00 We are family friendly but Adam's family friendly more than normal.
00:08 There are plenty of great museums dotted all around.
00:10 Small, large, history museums, art museums and there are some specific ones that don't
00:15 quite fit that mainstream museum bracket.
00:17 We're here in Pontywain just north of Newport and inside this unassuming house is the Morbitorium.
00:23 I would tell you what's inside but the clue is in the name and this place really speaks
00:27 for itself.
00:28 It started small, just kind of a shelf to begin with and then that kind of turned into
00:33 a bookcase and then a whole room.
00:35 Some bits I still got off eBay so I've got a few obscure searches which occasionally
00:40 will pop up results and a lot of it now is from other collectors so the more, the harder
00:47 bits to come hold of, some of the human skulls and things like that which I've got there,
00:52 you can't get those on eBay.
00:53 So it's grown up quite organically and it got to the point where it was such a large
01:01 collection that it was kind of like what am I doing this for?
01:04 Am I doing this for me?
01:06 I loved it but it got to the point where I had to open to the public because it was just
01:11 silly having this much stuff, just keeping it to myself.
01:15 Dave has been collecting oddities for the last ten years and he finally got to quit
01:18 his day job last year and run the Morbitorium shop and museum full time out of his house.
01:23 You can see around me that his collection has a bit of everything, from taxidermied
01:27 animals to medical instruments and everything in between.
01:31 The Ouija boards are always popular, if popular is the right word.
01:35 A lot of people I know will get bad energy from them but there's never been anything,
01:40 I've never had anything weird happen here in the four years, five years since I've had
01:45 the house and I've filled it with all sorts of potentially very scary stuff but then we've
01:50 got a lot of mummified things, mummified cats, taxidermy, creepy dolls, there's literally
01:56 something for everyone.
01:59 There's a few bits in here which people might not be totally comfortable with but it's the
02:04 nature of the beast.
02:06 I'm not sure I personally would be able to walk around this place at night but Dave says
02:09 he feels right at home amongst his collection and loves welcoming the public into the museum.
02:14 I love it.
02:16 This is my living room as well.
02:18 We do most of our living next door in my partner's house and we'll watch Tally have dinner over
02:23 there so she'll stay on her side, I'll come over here and I'll watch horror films surrounded
02:28 by all this stuff and I find it quite warm and cosy, it's like a little nest.
02:33 We've got a lot of families coming, lots of cats, lots of different age groups and demographics.
02:41 It's always really surprising the people who turn up to have a look and who are really
02:46 into it, you think, well you look far too normal.
02:51 So as Dave welcomes guests from around Wales and the rest of the UK, it might be a bit
02:56 of an acquired taste but there certainly is something for everyone.
02:59 James Peter Watkins, reporting from Wales.
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