In 1988 Gyles and Michele Brandreth opened the award-winning Teddy Bear Museum in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2016, at the invitation of Rick and Lucinda Compton, the Brandreth Bears moved to their new, permanent home in the specially-created Bear House at Newby Hall, near Ripon in North Yorkshire.

The Brandreth Bear Collection includes Fozzie Bear (given to Gyles personally by the Muppets' creator, Jim Henson), Harry Corbett's Sooty, the Paddington Bear who starred in the original 1960s TV series (voiced by Michael Hordern) together with his furniture (a present from Paddington's creator, Michael Bond), the original Pudsey Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh (who has to have his face to the wall because the real Christopher Robin didn't approve his smile!), Dame Barbara Cartland's teddy bear ('The Prince of Love'), Dame Judi Dench's bear, Steiff bears, Hermann bears, big bears, small bears - bears by the hundred.  Come visit them at http://www.newbyhall.com/teddy-bear-exhibition/