most people upsize their house to accommodate a growing family but retired couple huw and jan smith have a rather more fuzzy reason for moving into a bigger home – because behind the doors of their new residence live hundreds and hundreds of teddy bears the pair have more than 600 of the cuddly toys crammed into their four bedroom detached property huw smith surrounded by his collection of some 600 bears at his home in lancaster  the couple moved into this four bedroom home having found their three bedroom terrace was too small for their ever growing collection of teddy bears  the couple, who give each bear its own name, recently moved house to accommodate their large collection, which they have amassed over the past 23 years and estimate to be worth £4,500 mr smith, a former product manager, said some people could not understand why they would spend their money on cuddly toys ‘our friends think we have more money than sense, but we love our bears so much,' he said ‘we’ve had to move just to fit them all in in our previous place it was getting to be a tight squeeze but it’s less cluttered now ‘we’ve unpacked them all and they seem to be loving their new home ‘one of the hardest things about moving house was having to pack them all into plastic bags we felt awful doing it, it just didn’t feel right’ the couple, who don’t have any children, began collecting teddy bears in 1991 following the death of their pet golden labrador, biffer huw sits among a plethora of bears in one of the bedrooms at his home  they name and photograph each one and record when and where it was purchased in a detailed computerised log book in october they decided to move from their three bedroom terraced home in st albans, hertforshire, to a larger house in lancaster to accommodate their massive brood of soft toys they have so many that every room of their new property is filled with different types of bears ‘while we had the dog we couldn’t really start collecting the bears as he would have had them,’ said 60 year old mr smith mr smith cuddles up to their first ever bear, mischief, which they bought following the death of their dog  huw in the lounge of his new home having relocated with his wife jan to accommodate the collection  ‘but after he died we bought a teddy, sort of as a replacement pet, and from there we just carried on it wasn’t really a conscious thing, but now, 20 years later we have hundreds ‘we get the bears from all over the place gifts from friends and family, places we visit, holidays abroad, markets, auction houses and the high street ‘they are a real mixed bag and are all very unique we have some that cost a couple of pounds from charity shops to others worth a few hundred ‘the most expensive is steve, he was bought for my wife as a present when she worked for the council we think he is worth about £260 ‘we don’t buy designer ones like steiff’s as they are very expensive but we have got some lovely bears from john lewis and harrods’ the many boxes the couple used to transport more than 600 teddy bears from their former home in st albans to their new house in lancaster  mr and mrs smith named this bear corfe, the smallest in their collection, which they bought from dorset  mr smith said he and his wife love the bears so much they are ‘like family' ‘one of the first ones we ever got was a john lewis bear called mischief,’ he said ‘the largest is a three feet tall bear called conrad we got him in brighton and had to bring him back on the train he was so big he needed his own seat ‘they have pride of place in the lounge and the kitchen, while the dining room and bedrooms are full of them too people who come to visit think we’re mad ‘when we have guests we don’t move them or put them away our friends have to sit around them, but they love it they’re always posing for pictures with them’ mrs smith, 63, who until recently worked as an administrator for her local museum service, added: ‘we never had any children of our own but i wouldn’t say they were our fur kids ‘they are just incredibly well loved bears i think they all have such different beautiful faces’ teddy bears started in 1903 when a cartoon appeared in an american newspaper depicting american president theodore (teddy) roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub that was tied to a tree soon after, an enterprising novelty shop owner in new york made some toy bears and sold them as teddy’s bear
huw jan smith around £4,500
huw and jan smith have amassed more than 600 teddies of all sizes . duo began collecting the stuffed toys 23 years ago after death of dog . moved from a three bedroom terrace to four bedroom detached home . extra space to store ever growing collection worth around £4,500 