Tuxford horse museum opened in spare rooms marks 10 years

The museum holds hundreds of items collected over the last 10 years

A museum dedicated to horses which started as a passion project in the spare rooms of a gallery will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Sally Mitchell opened the Museum of the Horse in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, after originally buying the building to create a gallery for her art.

The artist, now 78, decided to dedicate empty space upstairs to her love of the animals.

Today the museum holds hundreds of pieces of horse-related paraphernalia.

Ms Mitchell opened the museum in June 2014 in an old posting house - once used to keep horses - and it has since gone on to win awards and feature on TV, she said.

The museum is situated in an old posting house, where horses would have been kept

After previously visiting equestrian museums in France and Germany, she felt England, which she called "a great equestrian country", needed one of its own.

"I think people think I'm a dotty little old lady and it's only going to be a funny, little room but there's a lot of stuff here," she said.

The museum shares the history of the horse, with collections about their links to travel, manufacturing industries the military and more.

Ms Mitchell has collected items from all over the world dating back to as early as 600 BC, she said

She added: "I have to admit, I spend a couple of hours every day checking searches on auction rooms all over England and all over the world looking for things."

Ms Mitchell added that people of all ages were "always amazed" when they visited the museum.

To mark its 10-year anniversary, the museum is hosting a series of events, exhibitions and family open days between June and September.

An exhibition of recent acquisitions will be displayed to mark the anniversary from 9 June until the end of August.