A DJ has voiced his astonishment after discovering a hidden treasure within one of rural Lincolnshire’s many garden centres. Mr Bamboozle, who doubles as a radio presenter, ventured out seeking vinyl records to expand his collection and was stunned by the enormous selection Uptown Vinyl Records boasts.
Physical music sales reached a 20-year peak in 2024, with the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) disclosing the vinyl market witnessed 6.7 million discs sold, contributing £196m to the economy. “This is probably the largest record store in the UK,” Mr Bamboozle gushed in a TikTok video.
“It’s located in a garden centre, so you have free parking, a cafe and toilets, making it easy a day of digging through records.” But where lies this unassuming shop? Baytree Garden Centre – better recognised for its Owl and Wildlife Centre location in Weston, near Spalding.
Upon entering, Mr Bamboozle encountered a wealth of audio cassette tapes and CDs before proceeding directly to a second room crammed with records. “All this section is rock,” he raved before spotlighting additional CDs positioned behind them.
Continuing ahead, the DJ revealed a vinyl area dedicated exclusively to The Beatles’ LPs, featuring an assortment of original 1960s 7-inch and 12-inch records. “There’s reggae if you’re into that, rock ‘n’ roll stuff… it’s just endless and endless,” Mr Bamboozle enthused as he navigated through shelves and walls brimming with records from artists such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Sex Pistols and Bob Marley.
“There’s something for everyone,” he highlighted, mentioning genres as diverse as gothic rock and country and western. “You will never get bored here.”
Further into Mr Bamboozle’s tour of the shop, a room revealed an extensive collection of soul and funk records, followed by Motown and even a Christmas section. But his journey didn’t end there, as he encountered another room dedicated to 7-inch singles. “It’s wall-to wall… boxes of them,” Mr Bamboozle commented on the records, which are priced from 50p each. “So if you like your 45s, look at that.”
Another vast room on the tour was packed with books, along with a huge number of CD singles – and a vinyl record player to sample any potential purchases. “It’s just packed,” Mr Bamboozle exclaimed as he discovered yet more records – this time boxsets and boxes upon boxes of the shop’s ‘bargain section’. “You’ve got folk, classical, dance stuff… look at it all… 80s, 90s, 2000s… techno, house… you name it, they’ve got it.”
Mr Bamboozle concluded with advice for all music enthusiasts: “Get yourself down here. It’s an amazing shop and the people are really friendly.”
In response to queries from his followers, meanwhile, the DJ described the prices as “very reasonable, you won’t be disappointed”, while also highlighting that the garden centre houses a cafe for those needing a break from shopping.
One TikTok user responded: “I’d need a week in there!” While a second person pointed out: “Love this, great bargains too and set in a garden centre and it has a fabulous toy area just at the end of the vinyl shop too.”
The shop – owned by Alan Barnsdale – states on its website: “Spread across four rooms The Uptown Vinyl Records shop offers a huge range of stock, we have around 200,000+ vinyl records available, along with 25,000+ CDs.
“We’re also unusual in that 99.9% of our stock is genuine vintage – we have only a small amount of new sealed modern vinyl pressings. We also have collections of other formats such as cassette and 8-track, music memorabilia, books and more. The advantage of having such a large space is that we can devote more space to genres that others shops can’t afford to give room to such as Country and Classical.”
