Children at Sidmouth Primary School have joined forces with the Toy and Model Museum to create a set of songs celebrating classic toys of the past.

Each of the five songs was inspired by an exhibit at the museum and based on the memories of a museum volunteer linked to that particular toy.

The project was coordinated by Little Seeds Music in partnership with Sidmouth Folk Festival, the museum and the school. Little Seeds organised interviews with the museum volunteers and worked with the children to write and record the songs.

These will be performed during the children’s activities at Sidmouth Folk Festival and will be available to listen to via QR codes displayed around the festival site.

Sidmouth Herald: The model James Bond car produced in 1964

One of the songs, performed by the school’s Hedgehog Class, celebrates the model James Bond car produced by Corgi in the 1960s – a replica of the Aston Martin DB5 featured in the film Goldfinger. Like the film car, the model had an ejector seat, revolving numberplates and a bullet-proof screen for the rear window. Museum volunteer Simon Frost has fond memories of his toy car, and inspired the song ‘Faster than a Bullet’.

The song by Fox Class, ‘The Day I Got My Doll’, is based on the memories of museum volunteer Rosemary Sowden who, as a child, treasured a doll she was given in the 1940s.

Museum volunteer Katie Frost told Squirrel Class about her beloved Pelham Puppet that she had when she was aged seven. She and her best friend enjoyed making up stories for the puppets to act out, and her song is called ‘Puppets from Memory Lane’.

Badger Class’s song ‘A Boy with a Pedal Car’ is about the Triang car owned by Ian Gregory, chair of the museum’s trustees, as a child in 1959. A few years later his parents put it out for the rubbish collectors, but it somehow found its way to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire, where Ian found it on display in a ‘Motoring Through Childhood’ exhibition in 2001. He recognised it at once, bought it and put it on show at the Toy and Model Museum.

During the Folk Festival the museum is offering half price entry to anyone who presents a festival ticket. It is currently open from 10am until 5pm, Monday to Saturday.