'I always say I was abducted by mannequins'

A sea of body parts is an unusual sight to behold. Legs, heads, the odd foot, as far as the eye can see. For Roz Edwards, it's just another day working inside what some would consider their worst nightmare - a mannequin emporium.

“Apparently, you can see it from space,” says Roz, gesturing to the gargantuan mound of plastic body parts in an array of colours.

Strewn in piles behind her, the figures are eerily human-like, and standing in front them, she appears as their leader, unwaveringly smiling.

“I always say I was abducted by mannequins,” she laughs.

Roz loans out mannequins and some of her 15,000-strong "family" have even flirted with fame, featuring in a music video with Mika and at Glastonbury with Lady Gaga.

But for the most part, they live at Mannakin Hall - a disused RAF station in Fulbeck, near Grantham, where Roz has been running her business for 17 years.

The road to her mannequin empire has not always run smooth though. It has involved risk, loss and love.

In 2007, Roz lived in a council house in Newark, where she harboured a mild fascination for mannequins and dreamed of starting a business.

At the time, she was a retail consultant and was writing content about the sector. She noticed that no matter the shop or price tag, there was one constant: mannequins. But no-one ever gave them any attention - whereas Roz found the endless ways they can be arranged and displayed fascinating.

The more she she thought about them, the more intrigued she was and thought she could create a business around them.

With a handful of mannequins at her disposal, she started a small page offering to hire them out. Within 24 hours, she says she was getting phone calls but quickly realised she didn't have enough to fulfil the orders.

Roz remembers telling white lies to her growing client-base by saying she was out of stock. The reality was, she barely had any supplies.

“I used what little money I had to buy more mannequins [and] that’s where it all started,” she says.

Just like that, in the corner of her small lounge, her business was born. The following year, she incorporated it and gave it a name. But at home, space was getting tight.

“The house just started filling up and up with mannequins. The children were complaining that they couldn’t see the TV anymore as they were in the way,” she recalls.

Clients, friends and the media bestowed a nickname which Roz says has just stuck - the Mannequin Lady.

Her business grew in popularity and what was once a small living room hobby moved to a warehouse operation. She constantly outgrew locations, then in 2012, she found, and bought, her beloved RAF Fulbeck.

What was once was a hive of aviation became Roz’s realm. As she sits in the old dining hall, hazily lit and surrounded by mannequins she's arranged with silver wigs on, she smiles.

"I’d like to think the airman [who used to eat here] would think the mannequins are funny," she chuckles, looking around.

Roz, who also makes horror films, credits her career and creativity to her father, who was an award-winning horror filmmaker, and carpenter.

“When I first started fixing the mannequins, it was like working with wood. Dad loved this place, he came and helped me with things,” she says.

Roz’s father, who had dementia, died in 2013, before she began to make her own horror films. She says she wishes he could see what she's achieved.

“I film everything on his tripod," she says, adding that it feels like he's never far from her.

Roz's business is well-known locally but she is also no stranger to celebrity. She recalls how 20 of her mannequins were used by Lady Gaga when she performed at Worthy Farm in 2009.

"She snogged one," Roz exclaims.

Some also appeared in Mika's music video, I See You, as a crowd sitting in front of the pop singer.

Roz acknowledges that what she does is unusual.

“Sometimes I walk around and wonder, what am I doing?” she says. "Then I realise someone will come here and they’ll love it." She pauses. "I’ll be the bonkers mannequin lady. I don’t mind at all."

An unexpected twist in Roz's journey is that her business inadvertently kindled a love match. She met her partner Tim after advertising an event at Mannakin Hall in some social media groups.

"Loads of people got in touch, but Tim, he just kept messaging me," she says. “The man of my dreams arrived in my yard, I didn’t have to go anywhere."

Though Roz enjoys the company of 15,000 mannequins (she likes the vintage ones best - they have more character than modern ones), nothing quite still beats a real human conversation with her partner.

“It’s a match made in mannequin heaven,” she says.

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