Inside the home of hoarder who has spent half a century collecting discarded rubbish
Jake Mangle-Wurzel has been feuding with the council for over two years
TO the average person, the objects surrounding hoarder Jake Mangle-Wurzel's home look like rubbish - good for nothing except throwing away.
But to the self-styled "King of the Eccentrics", every single thing has “a use and a purpose or a memory” - and he has been left devastated by an ultimatum to remove his stuff from the public land it has spread onto.
After near half a century living at his home in Lindley Moor, near Huddersfield, Jake has amassed an unbelievable amount of junk.
The mess surrounds the caravan he now lives in after suffering two fires - one in 2015 which destroyed his static caravan, and another in 2010 which gutted the cottage he'd called home for over 40 years.
But he's run into trouble with the local council, as items including wooden planks, an old chair, a bench and the solid fuel burner which burned down his caravan have stacked up against his boundary fence.
Now, after a feud which has been rolling on for two-and-a-half years, Kirklees Council have demanded he removes everything by next Friday - or "men with a wagon" will cart it all away.
The 78-year-old explained: “Two-and-a-half years ago they ordered me to tidy up.
“I’ve made a massive effort already to make most of it disappear but now they’re saying that everything has to disappear from outside my fence.
He added: “It’s fair – it’s just it makes life difficult for me.
“I’ve got to move my treasures onto my land which is already inundated.
“Or they say they’re going to come up with a wagon and two men and throw everything in the wagon and make it disappear which would be heartbreaking because all this stuff has a use and a purpose or a memory.”
Jake views his obsession with hoarding as an ";affliction", saying no amount of space would suffice
Jake is hoping to be able to rely on volunteered help to move his "treasures" from public land which borders a rugby training pitch.
Explaining his hoarding tendencies, he said: “I’m not the only hoarder. It’s an affliction – I have to get everything I consider to be precious.
“If I had a castle or half a dozen barns, or if I owned this field, it would never be enough.”