A Surrey museum which celebrates rural life has been saved from closure after raising £150,000 in three months.

The Living Museum of Rural Life began in 1968 as the collection of Madge and Henry Cole, who opened their garden to the public in 1973.

Today it has a collection of 20 buildings, including a war bomb shelter, a school and a steam railway, as well as 40,000 objects from agriculture and rural life.

Director Ed Fagan said the museum in Tilford, near Farnham, “survived day to day on ticket sales and donations for 50 years” but was closed.