England in Miniature

Growing up, one of my best-loved places to visit whilst on holiday 'by the sea' was a place called Mini Town. It captured my imagination, I absolutely loved seeing everything in miniature. 

When we moved to Devon two years ago, one of the places to visit on my 'bucket list' was the Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay. I had seen flyers round about the place and this place takes model villages to a whole different level.

Well, today (Sunday) I woke up and decided that it was the perfect day to tick off a bucket list destination. I mean...it wasn't raining after all so we need to grab the opportunity while we can.

We piled into the car and enjoyed the hours drive through the Devon countryside - it truly is a beautiful County. We got there nice and early, before the crowds. With tickets and cameras in hand, we moved through the entrance and were greeted by a view too marvellous...

It was like entering a little fairyland. The village is beautifully maintained, everything is in immaculate condition and the gardens are splendid.

Babbacombe Model Village has managed to capture everything that it is to be English from our traditional village, cultural landmarks and pastimes to a mythical medieval scene.

Even Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood had a spot to reside in this village!

Stonehenge even has the obligatory druids that visit each solstice, something we did not see while visiting the real Stonehenge 😊

As we walked around the village, I was reminded that all of this, every last thing in this village reflects what it is to live in England and because of all 'this' it is exactly WHY I love living here so much. 

It's quaint, and historical, and is so very English. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Isn't this little fishing village adorable? They really do look like this. It could be any small fishing village in the UK!

Off to the right of this little hunt scene is a group of protesters with little picket boards. But what I loved the most was this bus...

The moment we entered the village we all said how much it reminded us of the fictional 'Midsomer Murder' countryside and villages. My youngest and I are big Midsomer fans. Of course, there are far too many little model people here for it to be Midsomer - half the population has been knocked off over the years, it's a miracle there's anyone left in the fictional Midsomer 😆

See this little cottage above? Apparently, it really did catch fire one night (it has a timed flame that shoots out of a pipe - special effects and all that). When the staff came in in the morning it was a little pile of ash. So it was rebuilt, no doubt with a better plan to keep it from burning down again 😄

So if you are ever in Devon, do pop by this adorable model village to get a great miniature picture of life in England. I have about 77 photographs, clearly, I can't share them all here but if you would like to scroll through and have a detailed look at our visit you can visit my Flickr album and view all 77 pictures.