Vina has been creating dolls since she was a young girl. She developed a method of her own, making a wire armature over which material is stretched, padded and stitched to form 'skin'. Her hand-painting of the features ensures the likeness to the subject. She makes the wigs and elaborate costumes to complete each work of art.

She is also a collector of anything that evokes childhood memories. Vina offers a personal tour, and is happy to give expert advice on all doll-matters. Visitors’ comments are also welcome - "I had one of those" is often heard.

This colourful art-gallery in cloth features The Beatles, Cliff Richard, Audrey Hepburn, Dr. Zhivago, the Tudor and Stuart Kings & Queens, characters from Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, and local heroes Torvill & Dean in their famous Bolero costumes, and many more...

Vina’s own work is the nucleus of one of the largest viewable collections of childhood memorabilia in the UK, sensitively arranged through several rooms.

The museum is situated next to the mediaeval church in the tiny village of Cromwell just off the A1, five miles North of Newark. There has been a house on the site for many hundreds of years, originally the manor house of the Lords of Cromwell, ancestors of the famous Cromwells of history.

During the 1680s the present house was built on the site of the former, as a Dower house for the widow of the Earl of Clare. Many Tudor bricks were reused in the house, which was given to the church as the Rectory about 1710, and became “The Old Rectory” in 1921.

Vina and husband Charles moved into the house in 1984, when it was in need of some loving care, opening it to the public at Easter of that year. Continual maintenance, and thousands of visitors have brought the house back to life.