News from Model Town

Wimborne Model Town

– In the beginning...

By Greg Hoar

With this year’s 70th birthday celebrations featuring on national television, radio and in the press, it is interesting to reflect that the origins of Wimborne Model Town were strongly commercial and at a different location to the current King Street site.

A coach trip visit to Bourton on the Water Model Village by Ferndown businessman Charles Coffen in the late 1940s was to be influential for the future Model Town of Wimborne. Bourton’s model village was constructed between 1936 and 1940 using local stone and was inspirational in being a true 1/9th scale replica of a real place. A backdrop of the south’s post war tourism boom saw the genesis of the Model Town. A suitable 1/3 acre site, which had formerly been both an abattoir and market garden, was found to the rear of Wimborne’s Corn Market. A company was formed in 1949 bringing together the necessary skills to record the environment of Wimborne’s town centre and reproduce it in 1/10th scale. Alongside Mr Coffen, Messrs Keen, Budden, Masters, Rex Thorne the architect and Ray Vivian, surveyor and later company secretary, became the core responsible for producing the new attraction.

Hundreds of photographs and drawings were made of the buildings, streets and rivers of the central section of Wimborne. Local firm E. G. Hoare was instructed to level the new site in preparation for construction, which commenced in 1951 under site manager Bill Shearing. Alan Dean, who was to be involved much later in the move and rebirth, recalls being called in by Mr Coffen to deliver concrete sections from Verwood to the new site at West Row on his flatbed lorry.

The roofs and walls of the miniature buildings were cast in concrete sheets with embedded wire. When sited on precast bases, the wires were interwoven and secured with cement fillets to ensure the buildings were correctly formed and positioned. Doors and windows were generally constructed from beech.

The new Model Town was incomplete when it opened to paying visitors on Friday 1 August 1952. Many of the new buildings had no windows and the 22-ton miniature Minster was yet to be constructed. An image from The Dorset Herald from August 1952 shows Wimborne resident Deidre Brown (14) pointing out her ‘model’ bedroom to friend Jean Webster. In the background the ongoing work can clearly be seen with Frank Hand, Bill Shearing and surveyor Ray Vivian hard at work. Construction on the site continued until 1956. The reported total cost was £10,000, which translates into £330,000 at today’s values.

At this point in time entry to the attraction was just 1/- (5p) for adults and 6d (2½p) for children. It was open Monday – Saturday 9.30am to dusk and from 10am on Sundays. The completed site also included model dioramas of local Dorset landmarks: The Weymouth White Horse, Badbury Rings, Bath Hill Bournemouth and The Blue Pool.

Records indicate that by 1959 more than 80,000 people had visited Wimborne Model Town. British holiday makers and local trippers were supplemented by visitors from America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Speaking to a local newspaper that year, Company Secretary Ray Vivian commented that the attraction was a real asset to the town, bringing in visitors and trade. He was also hopeful for dull, dry weather for the summer to bring in the crowds.

Mr Vivian’s comments would still be recognised by trustees and volunteers of Wimborne Model Town decades later. Thanks to the voluntary efforts of generations of supporters, the charity attraction can look forward to welcoming visitors well into the future – perhaps even for another 70 years!