A World in Miniature

Esther Chilton fulfils a lifelong ambition by making the trip across the Solent to visit Godshill Model Village

- Esther Chilton

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to visit a model village. I’d seen many on TV, and marvelled over them, but I hadn’t ever seen one myself. Then I went to the Isle of Wight and found myself in the quaint little village of Godshill. I was walking along the high street when there it was: a model village.

What a model village. It really is a feast for the eyes, with model pubs, shops, a church, beach (complete with beach huts), working railway, gymkhana and more. It is so quintessentially English. It’s set in the grounds of an old vicarage and the models are a 1:10 scale version of the village of Godshill, Shanklin Old Village and Shanklin Chine.

The owners are Stuart and Penny Dyer, and the village has been in their family for more than 50 years. Penny’s father, Robin Thwaites, bought it in the 1960s when it was in a run-down state. “Dad had a toy shop in Portsmouth. A passion of his was Airfix models,” Penny explains. “He used to live on the island, and was keen to move back, so when he saw the model village was up for sale, he thought it would be a good fit.”

The original owner started work on building a model village in the 1950s, with the idea of creating a true representation of Shanklin. Real houses in Shanklin were measured and photographed, so they could be reproduced in the making of the buildings. The Godshill part of the model village came later, in the 1970s.