DAYS OUT: Villa fan Paul Humpherston has turned his 52-bedroomed mansion into an amazing Christmas tour.

Nov 9 2010 by Graham Young, Sunday Mercury

IT’S the £2 million mansion that has become home to hundreds of magical pieces of history.

Because Brummie owner Paul Humpherston has turned his sprawling property into a 52-roomed living museum boasting everything from vintage motorbikes to classic advertising boards – and a snooker table once owned by the King of Spain.

The Hall, at Abbey-Cwm-Hir in Powys, attracts more than 8,000 visitors per year, numbers which will be boosted even further with special Christmas tours.

Kingsbury-born Paul, 63, says: “We have people coming back again and again. They say they’ve never been anywhere like it.”

The Hall was built in 1834 but had fallen into disrepair by the time Paul and his Rugby-born wife Victoria bought the property for £495,000 in 1997.

They painstakingly restored the spectacular 12-acre grounds and stuffed every room full of antiques and 20th century memorabilia, including more than 130 enamel brand signs.

Where else can you see Father Christmas standing atop an 1873 Budapest fire tender, a full size snooker table once owned in the 19th century by the King of Spain, or a motorcycle inside a wardrobe?

The work and collection has cost more than £700,000 and Paul now reckons the mansion is worth £2 million – but he insists that he is NOT rich.

“We’ve had no inherited wealth and, unlike organisations such as the National Trust, no public funding whatsoever,’’ he said. “We’ve put every penny we’ve got into this house because we wanted to restore it and we hope it could be taken over by our three children to keep it in the family.”