The hottest day of the year in Britain so far was on Easter Sunday. After eating Easter Sunday lunch at a country pub in the Chilterns, I ended up going to the 90-year old Bekonscot Model Village and Railway near Beconsfield, Buckinghamshire for the afternoon. As it was the hottest day of the year and an Easter Sunday, many others had the same idea. There was a special Easter event taking place with an Easter egg hunt in the model village, and a lot of families were locating the clues to answer the questions on the trail. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I wasn't able to take any photographs and had to use my phone.
Bekonscot Model Village and Railway is the oldest model village in the world, and it was created in the 1920s. At one time, over fifty model villages existed in Britain, but only a few of these exist today. (I have previously visited Corfe Castle Model Village (Dorset, England) and Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds.) Much of the model village dates from the 1930s, and some of the buildings have been moved from other locations.
The name Bekonscot is an amalgamation of Beconsfield and Ascot, two locations where the creator of the village (Roland Callingham) lived. This model village inspired so many others, but this one is a fictional one whereas the Bourton-on-the-Water one and the Corfe Castle ones mimic the village that they exist in, at least in part. Some of the buildings, however, are modelled after existing buildings. Everywhere you look in the model village, you see something new, and some of the models move.
In addition to the model village, visitors can take a short ride near the model village on a small train. I've included my photographs of the model vilalge below, but there's just so much that you cannot begin to see it all. The whole site takes up 2 acres. The attraction attracts over 140,000 visitors each year, and apparently, 15,615,000 visitors have seen the model village since it opened in 1929. The model village is 90 years old!
If you enjoy looking at Model Villages, check out the following posts on this blog:
A Visit to Corfe Castle Model Village (Dorset, England)
Bourton-on-the-Warer Model Village
Legoland Model Village
Leave a comment