The project began in the 1920s with Roye England, who was determined to preserve the rural landscape and lifestyle he saw disappearing by degrees around him. His long-term objective was to create a detailed model landscape of the Vale of White Horse as he saw it in the inter-war years. He began with a single model of a country pub with thatched roof, and progressed from there. As he worked, he also satisfied his train-spotter's eye by taking copious notes of the times and consists of trains working through the Vale along the Great Western Railway. These notes form the basis of the model trains working in Pendon today, both the make-up of the trains and the strict schedule on which they are operated in scale time.
Throughout all three model layouts at Pendon, the level of hand-crafted detail is eye-popping -- perfectly finished brickwork, straw thatch, Victorian bric-a-brac on buildings, a buggy whip, exquisite lettering on signs. The scale used requires that all human figures are not much more than 1 cm tall! As well, there's the extraordinary collection of period-appropriate passenger and freight cars of all kinds, plus locomotives, also all hand-crafted.
The pioneering railway layout, the Madder Valley Railway, was created single-handed by John Ahern during the 1930s -- by hand! (There certainly weren't shops you could run into to purchase such tiny models and figures!). It depicts a fictional location with uncanny scenic precision. The Madder Valley Railway was the first railway model ever to be created within a detailed scenic environment, and as such assumes legendary status among railway modellers. This also makes the Madder Valley the direct ancestral great-great-great-great-grandfather of Thomas the Tank Engine!
Along with Roye England, a team of volunteers continued working towards the goal of recreating the life of the Vale. As a transitional stage, they built another railway layout based on an imaginary location at the edge of Dartmoor, in the southwest of England. This became so popular that it was retained in its own right and forms the second display.
The entire upper floor of the museum is reserved for the huge Vale of White Horse model, which was finally begun in the 1970s, and continues as a work in progress.
The lower portion of the display depicts the countryside and railway station at the imaginary village of Pendon Parva, which is served by the GWR main line and by a branch line.
Up the hill on the unpaved road behind the station is the village, and here the detail of the modelling is incredibly precise and intricate.
One of the fascinations is the ability to see the "bare bones" sections of this enormous model alongside the finished portions. A cutaway model of a country cottage is displayed so you can see the detail of construction that these volunteer craftsmen put into their work. These are certainly a far cry from mass-produced snap-together building models!
In this garden scene, look closely at the spade behind the wheelbarrow by the rear fence. Look at the tip of the spade and you will see a robin perched there. Remember that this entire spade-and-robin piece is perhaps 5-6 mm tall!
I spent well over an hour studying these incredible model landscapes and railways. I can only guess at the number of years of further work that lie ahead before Roye England's vision of a complete model of life in the Vale of White Horse reaches completion. Happily he was able to see the project well under way before he died in 1999.
Even if model railways don't interest you, Pendon Museum is well worth a visit for its incredibly detailed re-creation of rural life in a time now almost a century gone, well before the widespread introduction of motor vehicles and mechanized farm equipment. It's a fascinating experience!
(Note: Apologies for the variable focus of the pictures.
Shooting through plexiglass is always apt to be an iffy venture at best!)
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