‘I’m in a squeeze-box squeeze’: Home sought for fan’s 300 accordions

A MUSIC lover is seeking a permanent home for an unusual collection her 300 antique accordions.

Caroline Hunt has been left in a bit of a squeeze because of the vast number she’s amassed over the years. The 60-year-old said: “The collection is irreplaceable as some of them are very rare.” Caroline embarked on her mission to assemble the world’s biggest squeezebox collection 18 years ago. Her dream was to open a museum dedicated to the instruments, made famous by Scottish legend Jimmy Shand, which she achieved in 2008, but it was short-lived. Since then she’s had to rely on pals to help store them and says one friend has 19 “in her wardrobe”. It means the only time the public can see them is when Caroline travels to temporary exhibitions. But the number on display is limited by the fact her estate car can only fit 30. Caroline said: “For the last three or four years I’ve had two very kind friends who have helped me to store them but I can’t impose on them forever. “And accordions have to be kept in a decent climate. Damp is no good. “I‘d like to see them in a small community museum, with parking nearby as accordion players tend to be a bit older.” Caroline, originally from Selkirk and now living in the Highlands, already had two accordions when she lost her secretarial job almost two decades ago. She said: “I got some redundancy money and went to Italy to cheer myself up and went to see the Castelfidardo accordion museum. “It’s wonderful. People from all over the world visit and if you play, they lend you an instrument while you’re there. “I decided I’d like to do something similar. I had another job lined up and so I decided to spend my redundancy money on antique accordions. “I wrote to every auction house in the UK asking about instruments being sold. Caroline’s collection dates from the mid-1800s and includes some unusual models with bells and horns. And playing the accordion runs in the family. Her great-uncle Gordon Morrison, a farmer from Duror of Appin, Argyll, was a well-known player on the west coast. But Caroline, who works for G4S, didn’t pick up the instrument until she was 20. “My father was banned from playing at home because my mother didn’t like accordions. “After I moved out he turned up with one and said he could play it at my house.” However despite the problems housing them, Caroline said she never wished she collected something smaller like thimbles or doll’s house furniture. “No, never,” she said. “How boring.”