A MUSEUM created out of love for the Yorkshire Dales is to change hands as it approaches its 30th anniversary.

The folk museum at Reeth was opened in 1974 by Erica Law and her late husband, Donald, after they bought and converted the village's former Methodist Sunday school.

Mr Law died in 1989 and Mrs Law, now 83, found the museum becoming too much to cope with.

She and her daughter, Barbara, investigated setting up a trust to manage the museum, but the process would have involved almost as much work as running it themselves.

Instead, they opted to sell it to Helen and Alan Bainbridge, who live in Oxfordshire but have connections with Arkengarthdale.

Mrs Bainbridge works for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Mr Bainbridge is a potter. They have spent their holidays in the Dales and have helped clean and care for the museum as friends of the Law family.

The sale is due to be finalised early next month.

The Laws moved to the area in 1964, when they converted the old Methodist chapel at Whaw, in Arkengarthdale, to a home for them and their four children. Mr Law was district councillor for Reeth and Arkengarthdale in the Eighties and his wife served on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Committee.

Their interest in history led them to collect old farm machinery and traditional household items for display at the museum, which opens from Easter to October. Mr Law built a replica blacksmith's forge.

Barbara Law said a covenant was included in the sale, which preserved the building as a museum for at least five years.

"My mother is selling the building only; the exhibits will continue to be displayed, although anyone who has loaned anything and wants to have it back can do so," she said. "Helen and Alan have plans to develop the museum and raise its profile to residents and visitors, but they are keen that my mother is still involved."