The Collection
As early as the age of seven years, Richard Lancelyn Green began his collection of Sherlockiana, and created his version of 221b Baker St in an attic room at Poulton Hall, gleaning material for a few shillings at junk shops and from the family's own Victoriana. Later he began to assemble his literary collection, and would add any edition of Doyle's output, as well as posters, ephemera and novelty items with a Sherlock Holmes theme or Doyle association.
By the date of his death he had been collecting voraciously for more than 40 years and without doubt possessed the largest collection of Doyleiana that existed privately (and probably the largest such collection that ever could exist now that it has been bequeathed to the City of Portsmouth).
Packing the collection took two weeks for a team of ten and in total filled 12 vans. It comprises approximately fourteen thousand volumes and some two hundred thousand other items. The collection is currently in the fourth year of being catalogued by the City of Portsmouth Museum where exhibitions have created much interest. The patron of the collection is Stephen Fry.
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