'Nightmare' Brading wax works back on display

One of the original wax works featuring in the mini exhibition is that of Newport chimney sweep Valentine Gray

Wax works from a museum that gave visitors "recurring nightmares" have gone on display for the first time since its closure eight years ago.

Isle of Wight's Brading Wax Works Museum depicted various characters from the island's history, including Newport chimney sweep Valentine Gray who died in squalid conditions in the 1800s.

It also had a chamber of horrors.

The mini exhibition at Rectory Mansion in Brading aims to "rekindle" people's childhood memories.

The murder of French spy Louis de Rochefort in Brading in 1640 also featured at the museum, which first opened in 1965, along with a breathing and foot-tapping model of Queen Victoria, who holidayed at Osborne House in East Cowes.

The murder of French spy Louis de Rochefort in Brading in 1640 also featured at the museum

The wax work of Queen Victoria appeared to breath and its foot tapped

People who visited the museum before it closed have spoken about their memories of it ahead of the opening of the exhibition.

Hannah Young said: "I had a recurring nightmare, once or twice a week, for 15 years about this place."

Nicola Pritchett said: "I remember being enraptured by every scene in that place and had nightmares for days afterwards.

"It was the musty smell, the sounds, the fact a lot of it was so dark."

A winged cat featured in the taxidermy section of the wax works museum

Kimberly Southern, who holidays on the island every year from Oldham, Greater Manchester, said some of the exhibits were done with "humour".

"In the courtyard, if you so happened to look up to the beautifully thatched roof of the ancient Old Rectory building, you might see a slender lady's leg tastefully poking through one of the windows in the eaves," she said.

John Hayward, from Ryde, said his favourite was a chapel of rest scene "with the organ-playing skeleton".

The museum also featured taxidermy, including a winged cat, zebra and an elephant that sold at auction for £6,400 in 2012.

The new exhibition at Rectory Mansion features some of the original works, as well as memorabilia that has never been on public display.

The new exhibition features photographs and drawings that have never been on public display