A COUPLE with a passion for all things weird and wonderful have set up shop in Cinderford.

Much of the stock for sale at Curioddities in Market Street has come from the collection built up by shop owners Kirsty and Sebastian Vittorini.

They have returned to Cinderford after a summer of touring with their Victorian-style entertainment, Voltini's Sideshow, which includes sword-swallowing and an electric chair trick.

Kirsty said: "People are a lot wierder than you think. They might act normally but behind closed doors there's nothing they like more than something strange on the mantlepiece."

Among the items on sale are a variety of machines including a Victorian electrical device which it was claimed could cure baldness. an array of stuffed and pickled animals including pickled bats and frogs and a piece of the skin of a snake that killed a man in Florida in 1961.

Sebastian said: "A lot of the pieces in the shop are the ones that we could bear to sell. We also go to car boot sales and online auctions.

"It's not that easy to find this type of stuff.

"We are both performers and we tour in the summer but now we will be in the shop."