ARNE Toy Museum, one of only two toy museums on the South Coast, has been sold for £500,000.

Brian Etches, who set up the museum 18 years ago, has sold the 1.5 acre site and toy collection to Joyce Kosinski, the wife of a businessman.

Brian said: "I'm absolutely over the moon that the future of the museum has been secured for many years."

The Kosinskis, who live in Purbeck, have already starting adding to the collection, with the purchase of seven rare penny toys put up for auction from the collection of David Presland, one of the founders of London Toy Museum.

Brian, who went up to Christies for the sale, said: "It is the kind of thing you only see once in a lifetime."

Improvements to the post-war building are being carried out and the entrance re-landscaped. Plans to extend the building are being drawn up.

Brian continues to own the museum's collection of amusement arcade machines dating from the early 1900s and he will continue to carry out repairs and restoration at his workshop based at the museum.

He said: "School groups visit the museum during the winter and it is going to become even better - youngsters will be able to see stuff they would otherwise only see in London.

"I'm excited and pleased about it - this could not have worked out better. For 20 years I have struggled to get it there and now its future is assured."

Bournemouth-based commercial property consultants Nettleship Sawyer carried out the sale.

The museum collection has thousands of toys dating from 1850 to 1970 including dolls dating back to the 1860s.

The newly-acquired penny toys include a miniature horse-drawn ambulance, Triumph motorcycle and sidecar made in Germany, and a German soldier riding a motorcycle.

First published: September 17