{"id":411474,"date":"2026-04-26T09:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/411474\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T09:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:08:09","slug":"hippo-collection-being-sold-for-wildlife-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/411474\/","title":{"rendered":"Hippo collection being sold for wildlife charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who has amassed a huge collection of hippos over half a century has decided to sell it for a wildlife charity.<\/p>\n

Philip Angier, from Alnwick, Northumberland, was given his first hippo soft toy when he was 19 as a joke because it resembled the mascot of his rowing team.<\/p>\n

Now 75, he has decided its time to dispose of a lifetime’s accumulation of more than 1,000 hippo-related items including toys, figurines, artefacts and even a hippo table.<\/p>\n

“We thought we should do something now rather than leave it to our children and grandchildren to sort out after we’re gone,” he said.<\/p>\n

Angier’s love of hippos began in his early-20s when he rowed for Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames, whose mascot is a pink hippo.<\/p>\n

“After a particularly good season, my sister very kindly had one made for me and word got round the family that Philip liked hippos,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So it just seemed that for every birthday, Christmas and anniversary, more hippos came along.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The collection of more than 1,000 items has come together over 50 years [Philip Angier]<\/p>\n

A career working for a Fairtrade company, which imported goods from Africa, resulted in the acquisition of more hippo paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Angier does “quite like” the water-loving mammal and has seen them in the wild.<\/p>\n

“In their own environment they can be lovely, relaxed, gentle animals but we also know that they don’t like being interfered with and they are much stronger than us,” he said.<\/p>\n

While many of the items are inexpensive cuddly toys, some of the objects are more valuable and include a bronze cast hippo coffee table valued at \u00a35,000.<\/p>\n

All proceeds from the sale at Alnwick Castle on 15 and 16 May will go to Northumberland Wildlife Trust<\/p>\n

Follow BBC North East on X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Nextdoor<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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