The V&A Museum of Childhood has announced that it has bought a 17th century rocking horse, thought to be the oldest in Britain.

The museum in east London paid £25,000 for the antique, which is believed to have belonged to Charles I, possibly in order to build up his legs after he suffered from rickets.

The V&A Museum of Childhood has undergone an extensive £4.7 million refurbishment and is due to reopen in December this year

Constructed from elm and softwood, the battered rocking horse was purchased from a collector and has lost its hooves, saddle, ears and tail, though it still rocks.

It has been dated to 1610 and will feature in a display of around 20 rocking horses at the museum.

Noreen Marshall, curator at the Museum of Childhood, told the BBC: "Like so many historical toys it could so easily have been destroyed by woodworm, thrown away, or put on a bonfire. Children's toys have not always been highly regarded as important objects."