Todmorden Toy & Model Museum in Todmorden, West Yorkshire

Opened in 1998, the Todmorden Toy & Model Museum has always been a rich collection of whimsical toys, both old and new, offering visitors museum pieces to wonder at and purchasable toys to play with, but it was a local man’s surprising donation that gave the museum real heart. 

Housed in a protected historical building, the Todmorden Toy Museum both sells and displays toys dating from the present all the way back to the early 1900’s. From elaborate models to action figures to Punch and Judy puppets, the museum displays a wide variety of trinkets and childhood playthings.

The museum’s collection was vastly expanded in 2012 when local man Walter Moros left 20 crates of toys to the collection in his will. Unbeknownst to Mike Woollerton, the owner and operator of the museum, Moros had been a customer of the shop but never made a fuss about his love for it. The only stipulation to the donation was that Woollerton create a display of the toys which tended to lean towards film and television related pieces from such properties as the Thunderbirds.

Woollerton dutifully created the display and with help of a volunteer helper was able to sort the massive collection. Today the Todmorden Toy & Model Museum still delights visitors with its quaint but jam-packed collection made all the more amazing thanks to one of their biggest fans.