Weird & wonderful · South East England
Bekonscot Model Village & Railway
The world's oldest model village — a frozen 1930s England in miniature.
Jonathan Billinger — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
About
Bekonscot at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, opened to the public in 1929, is the world's oldest original model village — preserved deliberately in the 1930s style its founder Roland Callingham first laid out. A 1.5-acre miniature landscape of six 1930s English villages, a fishing harbour, a working narrow-gauge railway, model planes circling a tiny aerodrome and around 200 hand-built buildings, all run by volunteers and a team of model-makers maintaining the rolling stock and scenery. Visitors literally tower over the rooftops.
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
Bekonscot Model Village and Railway is a model village built in the 1920s in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, UK at a scale of one inch to one foot. It portrays aspects of England mostly dating from the 1930s and contains several fictitious villages featuring replicas of notable local buildings. The model railway has almost 10 scale miles (400 m) of tracks and in 2001, a 7 1/4 in gauge railway was opened to transport visitors. Bekonscot has become both a popular tourist location and a part of English culture. It is commonly referred to as the oldest surviving model village in the UK and by 2020, had received over 14 million visitors. Authors such as Enid Blyton, Mary Norton and Will Self have been inspired by the village.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
In 1934, Bekonscot was visited by the young Elizabeth II on her eighth birthday. By the 1960s it was owned and run by the Bekonscot Model Railway and Charitable Association. It is commonly referred to as the oldest surviving model village in the UK, although the eccentric Charles Paget Wade constructed a village called Fladbury at his home Snowshill Manor in 1907, which has been restored by National Trust volunteers. ]] Bekonscot was updated with recent developments such as Concorde and office buildings until the 1990s, when it was returned to the 1930s. By 2020, it had incorporated a new town and added a replica of High and Over, a house designed by Amyas Connell in the nearby town of…
Visiting
was a resident of Beaconsfield and a replica of her house was added to the model village in 1997|alt=A red-tiled family house miniature with a plaque beside it]] Bekonscot is the oldest participant in the International Association of Miniature Parks (IMAP). By 2020, Bekonscot had received over 14 million visitors and had become part of English culture. It represents an idealised version of traditional English villages and its brochure states it is a "little piece of history that is forever England". Enid Blyton was a Beaconsfield resident and friend of Callingham; she set her short story "The Enchanted Village" in Bekonscot. The Sunday Telegraph reported that Toyland, where her fictional…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 51.6049, -0.6373
- District
- Buckinghamshire
- Parish
- Beaconsfield
- Postcode
- HP9 1LN
- Parliamentary constituency
- Beaconsfield
- Official site
- bekonscot.co.uk
Sources
- manual: bekonscot-model-village (manual)
- wikipedia: Bekonscot (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Bekonscot Model Village & Railway?
- Bekonscot Model Village & Railway is in South-East England, United Kingdom (postcode HP9 1LN), in the parish of Beaconsfield.
- When was Bekonscot Model Village & Railway built?
- Dates from the modern period.
- How do I get to Bekonscot Model Village & Railway?
- Drivers can navigate to postcode HP9 1LN. It sits within the Beaconsfield parliamentary constituency.