Model Villages
Regular price
€16.99
This is the story of Britain’s model villages: miniature worlds that have captivated garden guests and paying public since the early twentieth century.
This history of these small-scale utopias covers their early growth as playthings of the wealthy, their blossoming into fairylands on seafronts during the post-war holiday boom, and of many model villages’ gradual decline from toy-towns to ghost towns.
But it is also the story of how diligent modelmakers, artists and crafters have carried on in the sheds, gardens and workshops of Britain to build small – yet think big. Today we still delight in their miniature marvels, and this book explains why.
This book is part of the Britain’s Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain’s past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with model villages in all their variety.
Tim Dunn worked at Bekonscot Model Village from the age of 12: he designed its new town, built models, ran the railway and wrote the guidebook. He has rescued at-risk villages from Thorpe Park, Ramsgate and Dudley, and has a 27ft Eiffel Tower in the garden. In his spare time he tracks down and documents long-lost Lilliputs, updates his ‘The Model Villager’ blog and twitter feed to 9,700 model village lovers and enthusiastically presents eccentrically British TV programmes like BBC Four's ‘Trainspotting Live’.