Toys dating back more than 100 years will be on display next week as part of a new initiative to bring children to Sidmouth Museum.

The attraction opens for its new season this weekend and has planned a series of events targeted at youngsters and their families across the year.

Ahead of the opening, visitors aged between five and 12 can enjoy a special themed day on Wednesday, learning about games and toys from across history.

As part of the event, the museum has been donated two model steam boats, each more than 100 years old, for ‘one day only’.

Therina Mulder, who is leading the museum’s young visitors’ section, hopes the varied themed day will help to attract more local families. She added: “Our aim is to engage young visitors in the museum and to familiarise them with these wonderful local resources which show us how things were done in the past and how people used to live in our area.

“We hope that our programme of themed events during the 2017 season will fascinate local children and families enough so that become regular visitors.”

The day, which runs between 10.30am and 3.30pm, will also feature a detective-style hunt and craft activities.