The Scottish man with the UK's biggest rare brick collection - including one from Whisky Galore ship

Mark Cranston, 62, began the bizarre hobby nearly 15 years ago when he was looking for a brick as a doorstop for his garden shed.

He found a white painted brick from a former colliery and the discovery inspired the retired police sergeant to look into the history of the brick.

Mr Cranston’s passion for them grew from there and over the past 14 years, and he has amassed a huge collection from Scotland, England, Wales and abroad.

He stores the rare bricks in his garden shed, which the father-of-two has had to extend over the years as his collection grew at his home in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders.

The shed now measures 6m long by 3m wide with multiple shelves - like a library - to store the bricks. But Mr Cranston is now trying to find a permanent home to store his much-loved collection.

He said: "It would be ideal having a museum where they are all in display. It is a story that needs to be told - they are all so full of character. It will be selfish keeping them around and we think we should share their story."

Mr Cranston said he would like to have different items and tools associated with bricks on the museum.

Among his collection he has a fire brick that was salvaged from the SS Politician, which ran aground in the Outer Hebrides in 1941 and was carrying 264,000 bottles of malt whisky, inspiring the famous novel Whisky Galore.

He has a brick that in the late 1990s was retrieved from the demolition of the execution block at Glasgow's HMP Barlinnie, Scotland's largest prison.

Mr Cranston also has a Scottish made brick from an old gold mine in Washington state, USA. The oldest brick he has is a drainage tile from 1833.

Mr Cranston said: "It is a collection that you will never see again because these bricks are not produced anymore. They were heat resistant used in chimneys and stoves to protect metal work.

"They did not break down - they were used in numerous industrial situations and they were part of the industrial revolution."

Mr Cranston admitted he would 'miss' the bricks when they find a new home.

"I am always cleaning or re-arranging the bricks," he said. "It is amazing how many people are interested. Since I started, it is amazing how many people started collecting as well."

The eccentric collector shares this passion with his friend Ian Suddaby - and together they own 6,000 different bricks.

Mr Cranston added: "The idea is that we would look after each others bricks, but we want to put it in a museum. We spent a lot of time finding these bricks."

He said Jedburgh would be the ideal place to get the museum, but he is aware of the costs involved with getting space and money for a museum.

Mr Cranston said the idea was “all up in the air”, but that he would be open to suggestions from people who would like to help them with this quest.

He said: "We don't want to lose them and Scotland doesn't want to lose them."

Mr Cranston has racked up around 75 per cent of his collection through his own excursions and 25 per cent from kind donations.

And collecting is a family affair, as his wife Karen, 47, son Jonathon, 28, and daughter Hannah, 30, have also got involved with his brick hunting.