text: Family, friends and neighbours of a collector affectionately known as the ‘bag lady’ are planning to auction off her property to pay the costs of her funeral.
  Carol Vaughan, who died recently at the age of 67 at her home in the Black Country’s Great Barr, had amassed a collection of more than 35,000 carrier bags, as well as 600 biscuit tins, 850 mugs and a Guinness World Record-breaking number of soaps. She had became a local celebrity and even recently appeared on ITV’s Daybreak programme, in the show’s ‘Collectorholics’ feature.
  Despite her tendency to hoard unusual items – including also ashtrays, watches, cuddly toys and beads – she was not given to collecting cash and the executors of her will claim that there is no money to fund her funeral. Hence the sell-off of the thousands of items that she has collected over the years.
  A prolific collector of carrier bags who was known affectionately as ‘the bag lady’ has died at the age of 67.
  Carol Vaughan of Great Barr in the Black Country had amassed a collection of more than 35,000 carrier bags over a number of years. It wasn’t just bags that took Carol’s eye, however; she also made it into the Guinness Book of Records for having the biggest soap collection, as well as collecting over 600 biscuit tins and 850 mugs. Incredibly, all the items were kept at her rather modest home in Dunedin Road, where she passed away.
  Carol recently had a brush with fame, appearing on ITV’s ‘Daybreak’ in its ‘collectorholics’ slot, where she talked about her love of collecting. Tributes have been paid by numerous friends and neighbours, who told how she could “light up a room”.