It is hard to believe
when looking at some of these pictures, that this a scale model. I have
always considered the creators of Pendon Museum to be the best model
makers in the world; I think the reader might agree.
I visited Pendon Museum at Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire in the late 1960's. Although I had been modelmaking since my early teens I had never seen work of such a high standard and was immediately inspired to try to emulate it.
When Australian born Roye England arrived in the U.K. in 1925, he settled for a while in the Vale of the White Horse in Wiltshire and fell in love with the idyllic country around his home. Change was coming and he witnessed the cottages and farms being modernised and saw the coming of the motor car, Realising that the countryside was changing for ever, he vowed to preserve it in the only way that he knew; in miniature. He developed his own methods of creating these models. They had to be durable and at the same time perfect in every detail. He explained how, faced with the problem of reproducing thatch, he experimented with human hair using various treatments to emulate straw. The hair had a tendency to curl and it was only when his barber had a Chinese customer that Roye found the solution.
The ficticious village of Pendon Parva lies in a stretch of countryside one mile long, such is the size of this model and is modelled as it would have appeared in the early 1930's. The buildings are perfect copies of homes, farms, pubs that once existed in rural Wiltshire. A main line railway runs through the valley and periodically a train, sometimes very long will trundle sedately along the tracks. As night falls lights start to appear in the windows of the houses; just a glimmer for electricity has yet to come to Pendon and oil lamps and candles provide the only illumination.
The model is housed in a large building and there is more to see. In another scene, a section of Dartmoor is re-created where a railway crosses a valley on a large timber viaduct. The railway through Dawlish, running along the shoreline is the latest exhibit.
Many years ago, John Ahearne built a model railway which he called the Madder Valley Railway. It became popular through the pages of magazines where its owner would take the reader on a guided tour of his fictional land. When he died, his widow donated the model railway to Pendon where it has been re-erected and can ocassionally be seen operating.
I would recommend viewing the Pendon Museum website where the gallery includes a large number of views of the models. Better still, make the journey to Oxfordshire and see for yourself. http://www.pendonmuseum.com/
I visited Pendon Museum at Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire in the late 1960's. Although I had been modelmaking since my early teens I had never seen work of such a high standard and was immediately inspired to try to emulate it.
When Australian born Roye England arrived in the U.K. in 1925, he settled for a while in the Vale of the White Horse in Wiltshire and fell in love with the idyllic country around his home. Change was coming and he witnessed the cottages and farms being modernised and saw the coming of the motor car, Realising that the countryside was changing for ever, he vowed to preserve it in the only way that he knew; in miniature. He developed his own methods of creating these models. They had to be durable and at the same time perfect in every detail. He explained how, faced with the problem of reproducing thatch, he experimented with human hair using various treatments to emulate straw. The hair had a tendency to curl and it was only when his barber had a Chinese customer that Roye found the solution.
The ficticious village of Pendon Parva lies in a stretch of countryside one mile long, such is the size of this model and is modelled as it would have appeared in the early 1930's. The buildings are perfect copies of homes, farms, pubs that once existed in rural Wiltshire. A main line railway runs through the valley and periodically a train, sometimes very long will trundle sedately along the tracks. As night falls lights start to appear in the windows of the houses; just a glimmer for electricity has yet to come to Pendon and oil lamps and candles provide the only illumination.
The model is housed in a large building and there is more to see. In another scene, a section of Dartmoor is re-created where a railway crosses a valley on a large timber viaduct. The railway through Dawlish, running along the shoreline is the latest exhibit.
Many years ago, John Ahearne built a model railway which he called the Madder Valley Railway. It became popular through the pages of magazines where its owner would take the reader on a guided tour of his fictional land. When he died, his widow donated the model railway to Pendon where it has been re-erected and can ocassionally be seen operating.
I would recommend viewing the Pendon Museum website where the gallery includes a large number of views of the models. Better still, make the journey to Oxfordshire and see for yourself. http://www.pendonmuseum.com/
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