Wimborne Model Town, situated on the edge of the town of

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Pool ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England, is one of the largest and most established model towns in England. It depicts the town of Wimborne as it was at the time the model was originally made in the 1950s, and captures the essence of a typical

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

of rural England at that time. The

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

model, built at 1/10 scale, features 120 buildings including 108 shop fronts and a 15 ft (5m) high Minster. The shop windows accurately show the goods the shops were selling in the post war years. Originally built on a site just to the north-west of the actual Wimborne Minster church, it became run-down in the 1980s, and a group of volunteers set up a charity and were given an area of 0.4

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

) of

Green Belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

land off King Street to restore the attraction. Although such use of Green Belt land would normally have been deemed inappropriate development, the

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

planners considered that the model's retention in the town was a 'special circumstance'. The council has since permitted over 245 square metres of temporary classroom buildings incorporating a visitors centre, cafe/gift shop, toilets etc. together with play cabins associated with the children's play area.East Dorset District Council Planning, Licensing and Enforcement Committee Agenda Item No 6, 19 November 2002
/ref> Additional attractions have been added in recent years, including a model railway based on

Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional, anthropomorphised tank locomotive who originated from the British children's books ''The Railway Series'', created and written by Wilbert Awdry with his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, first publish ...

, which was opened by

Christopher Awdry Christopher Vere Awdry (born 2 July 1940) is an English author. He is best known for his contributions to ''The Railway Series'' of books featuring Thomas the Tank Engine, which was started by his father, Wilbert Awdry (1911–1997). He also prod ...

. Today the model town is still run by volunteers, and is visited by thousands of people every year.

Gallery

File:Wimborne model town, High Street - geograph.org.uk - 539997.jpg, High Street File:Wimborne model town, post office on East Street - geograph.org.uk - 540017.jpg, Post office on East Street File:Wimborne model town, Clock Corner - geograph.org.uk - 540019.jpg, Clock Corner File:Wimborne model town, the minster from the north - geograph.org.uk - 540049.jpg, Wimborne Minster from the north File:Wimborne model town, Church Street - geograph.org.uk - 540023.jpg, Church Street File:Woolworths sell big boys' toys - geograph.org.uk - 1657826.jpg, Woolworths

References

External links

Wimborne Model Town WebSite
{{coord, 50, 47, 54, N, 1, 59, 27, W, display=title Miniature villages in England Tourist attractions in Dorset