THIS is the house of Newport man who has a collection of more than 4,000 miniature bottles of alcohol.

Starting the collection with his wife more than 48 years ago, Edward Hayes has been accumulating the thousands of bottles over the years – but has never drank a single one.

He keeps the miniature bottles in glass shelves in a beautiful, velvet bar in his house, but the collection was getting so big that he recently had to build an extension.

Mr Hayes said his collection isn't kept in any particular order and includes all sorts of alcohols, such as Sherries, wines and cognacs.

From animals to houses and from cannons to faces, the bottles come in all shapes and sizes.

“My favourite one is a ship-shaped bottle of cognac which we bought about 30 years ago,” the 74-year-old said. "We have not counted them, but we think there are more than 4,000 mini bottles.

“We either buy them in the shop or off people who also collect mini bottles.”

He said they normally pay about two to three pounds per each miniature bottle and that the most he has paid is £15 for the ship-shaped cognac bottle.

The avid collector estimates his collection to be worth at least £15,000 as it was valued at £7,000 when he had 2,000 mini bottles.

Mr Hayes - who is also known for building impressive flower towers to raise funds for charity - said: “To me, it is worth £100,000 – I would never sell it. I would buy other people’s collections, but not sell my own.

“Everybody that saw it when I had 2,000 miniature bottles said it was the largest collection they had seen, so now it could be a world record. I don’t know but would like to find out.”

Mr Hayes, of Gibbs Road, in the Beechwood area of Newport, said they started the collection 48 years ago after there was an explosion in a relative’s supermarket.

Mr Hayes said: “Me and my brother gave them a hand cleaning up and, in exchange, he gave us some miniature bottles.

“They were nice looking so we carried on collecting them.”

Mr Hayes’ wife, Jean, said they like the bottles because they are “pretty”.

“We have never drank one,” she said. “However, over time, they evaporate so some of them are half full.”

Mrs Hayes said their collection has been featured on tv programmes a couple of times, including Collectaholics.

After being featured in the BBC programme, they had several people getting in touch to sell them their collections of mini bottles.

Mrs Hayes said it was after the programme they converted a bedroom into another room to exhibit them.