Flowers - Mountains - Nature - Plants - Trees

Feb. 29 A Village in a Garden: One man has built a complete village. The roads, houses, church, shops, the castle and big houses, the railway bridges - every one has been built by Mr. Fred Slaymaker, 50-year-old Post Office inspector. The work has taken only just over two years. The reason the entire community of dwellings and Highways are to be found in his own back garden in Button, Surrey. Everyhouse is portable, and is built to scale and plan drawn by Mr. Slaymaker from actual dwelling in various parts of the country. They represent various stages in English Village architecture and cottage design. The whole Lilliputian creation has, ofcourse, been built without one builders license. The buildings have to be made portable, because as the model grows, (in fact it is already more a town than a village) its creator-cum-architect-cum surveyor-cum builder, has to switch them around to make more space. The work of replanning, renovating and building goes on all the year, and consequently Mr. Slaymaker has very little spare time even to show around the ever increasing numbers of visitors who come from all over the world to examine and to wonder at his handiwork. Reason behind Mr. Slaymaker's hobby is a family interest in archaelogy, and his own speciality of Medieval history and village life. The original idea of the village was born in the thirties, when he regretted seeing so many villages being swallowed by grotesque suburbis. His first models were of wood, and he kept them in the front garden. Water experiments in concrete and cement led to the village which was started about two years ago. It has now been suggested that the entire village be shown at the coming Festival of Britain as an example of British amateur craftmanship. Photo shows where the tiny meets the large. The village created by Mr. Slaymaker comes to an end where the concrete leading to his own kitchen surround begins

Restrictions Only for United Kingdom

50-year-old Actual Amateur Archaelogy Begins Builder Builders Cement Concrete Consequently Craftmanship Dwelling Dwellings Entire Examine Example Experiments Grotesque Grows Handiwork Highways Hobby Idea Increasing Inspector Kept License Lilliputian Ofcourse Portable Reason Regretted Renovating Represent Seeing Spare Speciality Stages Suggested Surround Swallowed Switch Tiny Villages

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > KEY