179/365 Teeny Tiny!

In 1927 Mr Roland Callingham, a London accountant, instructed gardeners to dig a swimming pool at his home in Beaconsfield. The pool and tennis courts were used for garden parties, attended by the high society of London. Politicians, minor royals, aristocrats and the movers and shakers of the era would come out for a breath of country air. In 1928, Mrs Callingham made a short but moving speech which suggested that either the indoor model railway went, or she did. The model railway moved outdoors. Mr Callingham commissioned a model railway firm to build the largest outdoor garden railway in the UK. In his spare time Mr Callingham, with his head gardener built some model houses to complement it; the pool then gained two islands and a pier. Encouraged by friends and staff, Mr Callingham planned a rural landscape surrounding the pool, railways and rockeries with boundless enthusiasm and unending passion for detail. His excitable team, including local schoolboys, turned their hands to modelmaking and the construction of Bekonscot Town itself – making it something of a post-school club for those inter-war years. Local buildings and personal favourites of the staff provided much of the village’s inspiration, for all were constructed from memory, photos or imagination. Following suggestions from friends and family, Mr Callingham opened Bekonscot to the amazed public in 1929. The village was seen in newspapers, cinema newsreels and magazines across the world, with thousands flocking to Beaconsfield to see the ‘real-life Lilliput’. It attracted the attention of the Royal Family, living just a short distance away in Windsor. The first visit was on 20 April 1934, the eve of Princess Elizabeth’s eighth birthday. The future Queen of England returned several times in later years, along with Princess Margaret, Queen Mary and the King. After her coronation, the Queen’s children came too and were equally enthralled with this, the smallest of kingdoms. There wasn’t an admission charge – but visitors were asked to put charitable donations in a box if they wished. Since then, all profits have been donated to charity each year – and they have given the equivalent of almost £5,000,000 to date.


We had a trip down memory lane on an August afternoon, as two of us had been here repeatedly as children and it was surprisingly good fun even at our advanced  age :)