VOLUNTEERS are working hard 50 hours a week to help ensure the opening of Winkie's Castle at Easter.

Twenty people are helping to catalogue, clean and conserve the unusual curios collected by cobbler Jack Anderson who lived in a small, whitewashed cottage in Marske, near Saltburn, which he called Winkie's Castle after his cat.

When he died in 2001, he donated the contents to Kirkleatham Museum, in Redcar, and the Friends of Winkie's Castle hope the terraced cottage will be in good enough condition by Easter to display many of the curios back in their old home.

The historical items are being stored in a 30ft container at Kirkleatham Museum where they are being sorted by the volunteers.

Among Mr Anderson's collection are rare photographs, including pictures of an early fire engine fighting a farm blaze.

There is also a ship's ledger from 1934, agricultural tools and many early maps of the coastline between Saltburn and Redcar

He also owned a Second World War sea mine washed up on Redcar beach as well as a baby's gas mask, which the entire baby was put inside and zipped up.

Gordon Fisher, secretary of the Friends of Winkie's Castle, said: "We really want this to be a resource for the community and done up as a Victorian cottage that people can come in and out of. We hope when people come along to see the curios it will spark their memories so we can then collate them for the community.

"We have also found a mountain of Northern Echo newspapers from the 60s and 70s which we are going through to find information about the local community."

If you want to be a Friend of Winkie's Castle, contact membership secretary Gordon Fisher at 8 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Marske, east Cleveland.

Published: 09/01/04