With a whole host of dolls stretching as far as the eye can see, The Lilliput Museum of Antique Dolls and Toys is an eerie sight to behold.

This is not home to any Tiny Tears or Barbies, but a whole array of dolls, ranging from the very cute and pretty porcelain dolls, to the very scary and bizarre doll with a crab's claw in place of a normal head.

This cottage museum, based in Brading, contains one of the finest collection of old and antique dolls and toys in the country with more than 200 exhibits on display dating back from c2000BC.

There are examples of almost every seriously collectable doll together with a number of dolls houses, rocking horses, tin plate toys, trains, bears, soft toys and many other unusual playthings.

The collection started back in the 1960s when museum owner Graham Munday's sister Katherine started to collect dolls.

Graham, 54, explained: "Katherine started collecting foreign dolls and she really wanted to get a Russian doll.

"Our mother jokingly told her that she should write to the Kremlin asking for one. Katherine went ahead and did this, and a few weeks later a small set of Russian dolls arrived in the post for her. We were amazed and the story soon made national headlines and we were featured on television.

"This really set the ball rolling and lots of people started to send us dolls. There were so many parcels arriving that the Post Office even had to put on a special van just to deliver packages to us.

"Among the dolls we received there were quite a few really old dolls. We started to research the history of these dolls and scout around junk shops to collect other old china or wax dolls.

"In those days, many old dolls were used at funfairs on stalls where people could throw wooden balls at them to smash them up along with plates.

"I started to rescue as many dolls as I could. One of my best finds was a doll I got from Henley in Buckinghamshire. It was in an antiques shop for £25, which was a lot of money in those days. I decided to fork out the money and I was really glad I did.

"Now that doll is worth £10,000.

"By 1974 our collection of dolls was almost taking over the house. By that time my sister had lost interest, but my mother and I were still very

passionate about collecting them.

"My mother wanted to open a museum so when we found the shop in Brading, we converted it into a museum. She ran the museum until 1989 when I took over running it. The oldest doll that we have in the museum is a tomb-doll which is dated around 2000BC. It is more of a figurine than a doll. They were put into graves."

Among the many exhibits can be found a wax doll made in around 1790 and dressed by a lady-in-waiting to Princess Caroline of Brunswick. The material used to make the dress was a remnant of the Princess's wedding dress.

Next to her is the modern equivalent - one of only two contemporary dolls in the museum - a portrait doll of Diana, Princess of Wales produced by a member of the British Doll Artists' Association in 1981. Like the wax dolls this exhibit is also dressed in a remnant of the original wedding gown.

Graham said: "The Diana doll is made of porcelain and is one of only four in the world. I bought one of them, another went to Diana's family, another to Australia but I don't know what happened to the fourth.

"After having the doll in the museum for a number of years, we were going to take it out but then Diana died and we kept it in because of the interest in her.

"The doll with a crab's claw instead of a head is an interesting doll and was made in 1885. A fisherman made it, and the detail is remarkable. In the little basket she is holding there is even a tiny little crab claw.

"It looks rather sinister but it wasn't intended to be."

Although most of the dolls in the collection are in good condition, Graham has problems with the wax dolls.

"The wax ones tend to start to melt if they get too warm and their faces cave in," he said. "We had a very hot summer a few years back and some of them needed to be sent away to be restored. We combat the problem now by keeping them in the coolest part of the museum.

"People do think it is strange that a man has a doll collection, but my mother was really the driving force.

"I would say that probably around three-quarters of the dolls that are here were probably made by men. They are all works of art, and were created by artists. A lot of skill has gone into the creation and modelling of their faces, they are far more than a simple plaything."

The Lilliput Museum of Antique Dolls and Toys, High Street, Brading. Tel: 01983 407231. Open every day from 10am to 5pm.