Comments/corrections to:
Dewi Williams
This model village, I believe the first in the world,
started as one man's hobby in his back garden in the town
of Beaconsfield, north-west of London. It has been
enlarged and updated continuously. I visited it several
times when I was a boy, and my wife and I were able to
take our granddaughter there in 1999.
Photos
One column from the magazine "The
Builder", 1933, as quoted in Bygone Britain,
"At Home, 1930-1939"
(London: HMSO, 1995, ISBN
0 11 701897 X)
A
MODEL VILLAGE
We have
received from the Railway Benevolent Institution
particulars of a charming model village that has
been built
at Beaconsfield from the designs of the owner,
Mr. Callingham, of Chiltern Lodge,
Ledborough-lane, Beaconsfield. It is situated in
a beautiful rock garden covering an area of
roughly 1,200 sq. yds., and consists of a
village, with church, shops, hotel and other
public buildings, 1,200 ft. of railway line with
five stations complete with rolling-stock and
other accessories, fields, water-courses
and woods.
The railway, which is electrically controlled,
has three main platforms at the terminus, double
lines of rails passing along deep cuttings
spanned by bridges, and an intricate system of
points and electric signalling. It is, in fact, a
reproduction to the minutest detail of the modern
railway system.
The village is electrically lit, and in the
evening forms a charming picture with its
illuminated streets and buildings. The buildings
are of brick, stone and timber. In the fields
cattle graze and the whole pastoral setting is
typical of the unspoiled country-side.
The
village is open to public inspection every
Sunday, and the proceeds are given to charities
in which the owner is interested.
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The month and year shown for each
photograph is correct, though the day may not be
completely accurate.
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This page last updated on 2005-03-26.
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