The Museum was established by Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton, who spent forty years exploring Africa and Asia and collecting in the UK. Once he'd run out of room in the house, he built a 'Pavilion' alongside. This was opened to family and friends around 1895, and today it is just one gallery in a museum that displays around 400 animal specimens. The overall collection is huge and the curator, Malcolm Harman, admits that the artefacts never been totalled up. He estimates that the ethnography section alone contains around 18,000 items.

Arguably the most famous galleries are those housing the taxidermy. Modern attitudes have, perhaps, distorted the scientific nature of the collection and although some sections may not be to everyone's taste, Powell-Cotton was a genuine conservationist. Many of the animals are displayed in such a convincing manner that you almost forget you're not on the African Savannah. As well as the stunning dioramas there are mounted heads and carefully preserved skins. The glass case housing a lion in mid-attack on a buffalo is one of my personal favourites. Irrespective of your moral stance on Percy Powell-Cotton's hunting exploits, nothing brings home the reality of the natural world better than this stunning example of the taxidermist's art.

The collection contains almost every African mammal (there are over 5,000 additional species behind the scenes), including some species that casual visitors would be forgiven for never hearing of, such as Mrs Gray's Lechwe and Hunter's Hartebeest. No animal in the collection is extinct. On the contrary, many species that were endangered in Powell-Cotton's time are now thriving as a result of his educational legacy. The museum is also proud of its primate collection. Many of these were traded from local people who routinely hunted the animals for food.

Other galleries display a wide range of African cultural artefacts, including jewellery, costumes, weapons and domestic utensils. The exhibition helps to put many of these into context, with background information and photographs of many of the ethnic groups that Powell-Cotton met during his travels. The collection bug was also passed on to two of the Major's daughters, who added several thousand objects, photographs and films from their own travels in Angola.

In one of the most exciting and diverse collections in private ownership, there are also displays of local archaeology, firearms and cutting weapons from around the world, Asian artefacts, Japanese Netsuke and porcelain. Many of these items were obtained by the Major from sale rooms and auctions. Much of the porcelain came from the collection of Mr Pope, a former Catholic missionary. Having purchased some of the items at auction, Major Powell-Cotton arranged to buy the rest privately. They consist of European and Chinese export pieces and some of the most prized items are those that were made exclusively for use by the Imperial Emperor in the Forbidden City. Most of this dates from the Quing and Minq Dynasties and includes examples of the highly prized and exclusive 'yellow' porcelain reserved for the Emperor's immediate family.