I got tired of the present — so I turned my home into an 1850s Wild West town
A man lives in a double time-warp house – with the inside set in the 1950s and the outside an 1850s Wild West Town.
Billy Gibbons, 68, transformed his home into a 1950s haven after his parents died in the mid-90s.
In his sepia lounge with rugged walls, he has an original Bakelite TV from as far back as 1949, supported by a cabinet from the early 50s.
Billy’s kitchen features vintage cabinets in a bright technicolor with a black and white chessboard floor tiling.
He owns 10 fridges all from the 1950s – though only one is kept in his kitchen – as well as period radios, collectibles and ornaments.
Billy also dresses in clothes from the era and owns an original Vauxhall Velox PA and a hotrod.
But – not feeling like he lived far enough in the past – decided to begin converting his garden into an 1850s Western town.
After three years building it and spending $60, he has now completed his mini-ranch and jumped back a further 100 years.
Complete with a sheriff’s office, moonshine still, two jails, a bank, a trading post, a barbershop, a blacksmith’s and a cannon.
The barbershop houses Billy’s wood and washing machine, while the blacksmith doubles up as a garage for his cars.
He also uses the tin bath outside the trading post to bathe in.
Billy, a retired care home worker, from Audlem, Cheshire, said: “One morning I woke up a while ago and thought ‘yeah, I live in the 1950s but outside I want to live in the 1850s’.
“It’s separate from the house – inside the house I live in a 1950s time-warp and I’ve lived this way since I inherited the house in 1996.
“I’ve lived here with my mum and dad since 1969 and over the years I collected 1950s artifacts but my dad wouldn’t let me put them in the house.
“After my parents passed in the 90s I was able to do what I wanted with the house and I was able to put my 1950s artifacts in.
“I’m very proud of it all.”
Billy’s obsession with the 1950s began when he was just a boy in the 1960s and he now spends his time singing in a band as a Rockabilly singer.
He said: “Of all things, how I got into the 50s was Blue Peter.
“The background music was Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog.
“It was that that got me into the music.
“I did more research and found out the style of household items and the 50s clothes which I wear on a regular basis actually.
“The clothes – a lot of the stuff I’ve got is modern retro but a lot of it I get is from charity shops, not my underpants though.
“The classic cars – one of them is a late 50s Vauxhall Velox and I also have a 1950s style hotrod.”
Billy has had to spend very little on his 1950s interior, as most of the items he’s had tucked away for over 30 years – but he estimates his collection is worth WHAT.
He said: “Most of the stuff I’ve got I was given when people were throwing them away in the 80s and 90s as they were deemed too old.
“I’ve got 10 1950s fridges – you can’t have too many.”
And Billy wasn’t finished with his time-warp conversion, opting to go back a further 100 years.
He said: “When we moved here in 69, my dad kept horses and he built two stables and a few other sheds for his hay and after I inherited it I built a big garage for my classic cars.
“But after this brainwave for the ranch, I started with the stables and I converted those into the jail and the other stable into the sheriff’s office.”
Billy has made use of his 1850s ranch by converting some of the rooms into multifunctional spaces.
He said: “As we leave the 1950s you go into a typical Western 1850s back porch and to the right of that I’ve got the barbershop – which I use as a a wood store and to house my washing machine.
“Go further along I’ve got a coffin and an undertakers sign there.
“Then I’ve got a Western Union Telegraph office – but that’s another façade and I keep guns in there and we do a bit of a plinking [shooting at tin cans].
“To the left, I’ve got a moonshine still which I’m very proud of – though I don’t actually brew moonshine.
“To the left again is the trading post with the tin bath which is what I use to bathe in.
“Then we have the sheriff’s office with the jail.
“At the gable end of the big garage I’ve got the livery and blacksmith’s shop with the 1850s anvil outside.
“When you go into the blacksmith that’s my garage which houses the classic cars.
“Obviously I’ve got a cannon.
“And there’s another tiny sheriff’s office at the end of the lean-to.
“Further down the garden, I’ve got the other jail housed by some six-foot by 12-foot gates.
“I finished the jail recently and it was going to be the saloon but you could see the sign from the road and didn’t want a rumor going around that there’s a load of whisky in there.
“That’s pretty much a tour of the property really.”
Billy estimates the entire build took him just $650 to complete – utilizing materials he already owned.
He added: “I did it all on my own.
“The stuff that I haven’t been given or couldn’t find I had to go to reclamation yards or timber yards.”
