If you love frogs you'll love this

© Nwewbury Weekly News, 16 March 2002

Frog fan opens the world's first frog museum at her new Wiltshire pad

West Berkshire is a frog friendly place now that the world's first frog museum, FrogsGalore, has opened in Baydon at a dedicated collector's new Wiltshire pad.

More than 300 people watched the opening event at Baydon House last weekend where the Muppet Show's top frog Kermit cut the ribbon with the museum owner Mrs Sheila Crown.

The exhibition features a staggering 10,537 ornamental frogs collected by Mrs Crown, who is a swimming teacher and dedicated 'frogophile'.

The craze started in 1979 when Mrs Crown bought a green frog ornament for a green room. More green frog ornaments were bought for the room by herself and then by friends until the collection spawned out of all control.

The collection includes paintings, pottery, leather, jewellery, jigsaws, toys, glass, cards and clothes and sizes range from a minute 2mm silver frog charm to a 2m, life-size netball-playing frog.

When Mrs Crown and family moved to Wiltshire it took removal men several days to pack up the frogs and it took Mrs Crown nine months to unpack them.

She said: 'It was never my intention to open a museum. The frogs overrun our house in London. They were on all the surfaces so when we moved out to the country we converted a barn to house them all in, then I thought I would turn it into a museum.'

'My favorite frog is one where you kiss it, then unzip its mouth and turn it inside out and it turns into a prince. The most unusual frog is a lipstick.'