Doll museum marks silver anniversary

A museum that started because its owner wanted somewhere to keep her massive collection of dolls and accessories safe celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

The Vina Cooke Museum of Dolls and Bygone Childhood in Cromwell will be holding special celebrations on Easter Monday to mark the start of the new season.

The museum takes up most of the rooms of The Old Rectory on Great North Road, Cromwell.

It is also the home of Mrs Vina Cooke-Chambers and her husband Mr Charles Chambers, who run it between them.

The museum’s heyday was in the 1980s and 1990s but it still attracts about 7,000 visitors a year from all over the world.

Mrs Cooke-Chambers said she loved to hear the reaction from visitors who spotted a doll they used to have as a child.

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