A HIDDEN treasure trove is to be unveiled to the public for the first time in years.

Curios, including a two-headed sheep, historic photographs and important artefacts, all locked away in a 17th Century Grade II listed house named Winkies Castle, will be available for viewing by the public.

A cobbler named Jack Anderson has left the building in Marske High Street - and the artefacts he spent his life preserving - to the people of his home town.

Mr Anderson, who prevented the house built to medieval design from being torn down in the 1960s, died in May last year.

He bequeathed Winkies Castle to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. His dream was that it would be turned into a museum.

A group of enthusiasts, under the supervision of the council, aim to open it to the public, possibly next summer. But first the long, hard job of organising a group to collate the thousands of artefacts and raise money for decoration and structural improvements must begin.

Phil Philo, the council's museums curator, said some of the agricultural equipment was of particular importance. "Things like drenching horns and bull leads we have here were once a commonplace part of life, but that rural life disappeared very quickly in the early part of the 19th Century and so they are good to have. Then there is the building itself which is one of a very few we have in this area dating back to that time."

One theory for the house's name, Winkies Castle, was that it was named after a cat who used to live there.