British rock legend Phil Collins brought his massive collection of Alamo artefacts to the San Antonio site those in the Lone Star State call the Shrine of Texas Liberty for a museum that will be named in his honour.

“This completes the journey for me,” Collins said in front of a building across the street from the Alamo that will temporarily house the collection while a planned $100 million centre to display the Phil Collins Alamo Collection is being built.

“These artefacts are coming home,” said Collins, 63, who became fascinated by the Alamo while watching Fess Parker star as Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, while he was a small child growing up in suburban London.

The items include the fringed leather pouch that Davy Crockett carried from his home in Tennessee into Texas, then a part of the Republic of Mexico, and the Alamo, which was built in the 1750s by Spanish colonists as a chapel to bring Christianity to the native peoples of what is now Texas.

The pouch, containing two musket balls and two tortillas, was recovered by a Mexican colonel following the 1836 battle between the Mexican Army and Texas settlers fighting for independence from Mexico, in which Crockett and nearly 190 other defenders were killed.

Also included in the donation is an original knife that Jim Bowie had in his possession during the battle, and one of only four remaining rifles known to have been owned by Crockett.

“When I got older and became successful, I decided to spend my money on original items from the Alamo rather than on Ferraris,” Collins told a press conference in San Antonio.

He said a handful of items will be kept in his home in Switzerland because his nine-year-old son has also become fascinated with the Alamo.