Memories are worth their weight in gold…photos and videos of family and friends top UK poll of most prized possession

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A new national survey has revealed that photos and videos of family and friends rank as our most prized possessions.

However, while more than a third of people said that photos and videos are their top treasure – a long way ahead of all other items in the list – 80 per cent have put no protection in place for these items, running the risk that these memories will be lost to the next generation.

The survey of 2000 UK adults was carried out by specialist insurer, Ecclesiastical, to uncover the things that people treasure the most and why they mean so much to them. Ecclesiastical insures many of the nation’s irreplaceable treasures – from heritage gems such as St Paul’s Cathedral and Chatsworth to museums and galleries and priceless art and jewellery collections.

It was clear from the poll that when it comes to the items British people love the most, we do not live in a material world after all. Only 21 per cent of people told us that they think we value ‘things’ more now than we did 10 years ago, and a fifth of people don’t even own an item they couldn’t be without. 

And while laptops, computers, tablets and phones were second on the list of the things we most treasure, it’s not their value that makes them special to us, it’s their ability to connect us with the people we love. 

In the poll, almost twice as many women named family photos as their most treasured item (43 per cent) compared to men (26 per cent), while the opposite was true of technological treasures, with 21 per cent of men naming laptops, computers, tablets and phones compared to 13 per cent of women.

Many of the people surveyed said that snapshots of their past are “irreplaceable” and “unique”. Other comments included: “I love my family, I can’t see them every day but I can look at photos”, and, heartbreakingly, “my daughter died 40 years ago of cot death and I only have one photo of her”.