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Land of Lost Content celebrates Great British rubbish

No one quite does knick-knacks like us Brits: a fact celebrated by a charmingly eccentric museum in rural Shropshire, The Land of Lost Content. Billed as being “dedicated to ephemera,” the museum is run by collector Stella Mitchell, who’s been drawing together multifarious bits and bobs for the last 40 years, amassing thousands of objects. Together, they present a strange and nostalgic narrative of British society, all told through the things deemed one man’s trash, but another’s treasure.

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Red book cover titled The Land of Lost Content by Stella Mitchell, displayed against a black and white photograph of a Victorian brick building with period shop fronts

Now, the museum is being distilled into book form by a formidable team including designer Patrick Fry, photographer Inge Clemente, and writers Stella Mitchell, Teal Triggs and Rob Banham.


The 272 page case-bound, limited-edition book aims to be, like the collection, something that draws together rubbish into a format that surely no one would want to throw away. 50 items from the collection are presented alongside a short story written by the woman who knows them best, Mitchell.

Red hardback book cover titled "The Land of Lost Content" by Stella Mitchell, with subtitle about the story of Great British rubbish
Collection of vintage British ephemera including soup tins, sweet boxes, vinyl record, toy figure and cosmetic products arranged on white cards
Cream canvas tote bag printed with "THE BAG of LOST CONTENT" in burgundy text
The cover of Stella Mitchell's The Land of Lost Content book, featuring burgundy text on a cream background, laid on a blue and white gingham pattern
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