Hippo collection being sold for wildlife charity

A man who has amassed a huge collection of hippos over half a century has decided to sell it for a wildlife charity.

Philip Angier, from Alnwick, Northumberland, was given his first hippo soft toy when he was 19 as a joke because it resembled the mascot of his rowing team.

Now 75, he has decided its time to dispose of a lifetime's accumulation of more than 1,000 hippo-related items including toys, figurines, artefacts and even a hippo table.

"We thought we should do something now rather than leave it to our children and grandchildren to sort out after we're gone," he said.

Angier's love of hippos began in his early-20s when he rowed for Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames, whose mascot is a pink hippo.

"After a particularly good season, my sister very kindly had one made for me and word got round the family that Philip liked hippos," he said.

"So it just seemed that for every birthday, Christmas and anniversary, more hippos came along."

A career working for a Fairtrade company, which imported goods from Africa, resulted in the acquisition of more hippo paraphernalia.

Luckily, Angier does "quite like" the water-loving mammal and has seen them in the wild.

"In their own environment they can be lovely, relaxed, gentle animals but we also know that they don't like being interfered with and they are much stronger than us," he said.

While many of the items are inexpensive cuddly toys, some of the objects are more valuable and include a bronze cast hippo coffee table valued at £5,000.

All proceeds from the sale at Alnwick Castle on 15 and 16 May will go to Northumberland Wildlife Trust

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