A TOILET roll of honour featuring East Lancashire comic Jim Bowen is one of the more unusual exhibits at a mini museum set up to celebrate a century of sewage treatment.

Yorkshire Water worker Geoff Dawson (pictured), 53, of Claremont Place, Todmorden, has worked at Eastwood sewage works in Todmorden for the last 23 years.

He has established the museum in the plant's control room to chart the history of the site from 1903 to the present day.

One of the most unusual exhibits is the toilet roll of honour, listing 45 celebrities -- including Jim Bowen, who lived in Clayton-le-Moors and Nelson and was also a teacher at St Augustine's High School, Billington.

Also on the roll of honour is BBC weatherman John Kettley, who is from Todmorden.

All the celebrities -- including Winston Churchill and Selina Scott -- have, in Geoff's own delicate words, "donated waste products to Eastwood."

According to Geoff, who has lived in the area all his life apart from an 18 month period, they have all visited Todmorden and spent considerable time in the town.

Geoff first thought about preserving this often-overlooked aspect of our heritage when he started working at the 12.5 acre Eastwood site back in the late 1970s.

But it wasn't until a few years ago that he, together with former colleague Philip Richardson, was able to site his collection properly. Geoff said: "It was really the old sludge pump that set me off on this path.

"When the new plant was being built three years ago a new control panel was going to completely hide this machine.

"I managed to get the panel moved to the centre of the building and then set up my museum around it.

"The main exhibit is the pump and, in total, I have saved it three times."

The museum has plans dating from 1924 detailing the first extension to the works.

There are numerous photographs, including several from 1903 and 1904, which show how the course of the River Calder was diverted before work on the sewage farm started. Eastwood's role in the Second World War is also highlighted, as the local Fire Watch was based at the works between 1940 and 1945.

There are numerous other items, such as old bottles and clay pipes, which were found when Eastwood was extended in 1997.

But a collection of false teeth, which were dropped down toilets in the town and then kept on a shelf, has long since disappeared.

Geoff said: "This old man came in once and said he had lost his teeth down the toilet and asked if we had found them.

"We pointed him in the direction of the shelf and he began trying them all. He eventually left with a pair that were almost, but not quite, a perfect fit.

"That is a true story."

Even though Geoff leaves Eastwood in July, he hopes his museum will remain an integral part of the works.

He added: "I've really enjoyed putting the museum together.

"Some people think I'm a bit nutty but others have said it's a really good idea.

"If a museum ever gets opened in Todmorden, then I would like to see these items displayed there.

"After all, the Eastwood works has an important part to play in the town's history."

The full "toilet" roll of honour is: HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales; Sir Winston Churchill; Lord Healey of Riddlesden; Geoff Love; Austin Mitchell MP; John Kettley; Lady Thatcher; Lulu; Sir Bernard Lovell; Adam Faith; Bobby Ball; Ken Dodd; Les Dawson; Selina Scott; Johnny Kidd and the Pirates; Roy Castle; The Four Tops; Norman Wisdom; Keith Emerson; John Helliwell; The Houghton Weavers; Duggie Brown; Noel Edmonds; Dame Thora Hird; Brian Close; Peter Lever; Fred Dibnah; Dave Lee Travis; Acker Bilk; Anna Cartaret; Jeremy Beadle; Norman Collier; Michael Aspel; Heather Small; Bernard Manning; Mark Currie; Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen; Dave Berry; Phylis Calvert; Virginia Stride; Jeff Banks; Jim Bowen; Lisa Stansfield; Sir Cyril Smith.