The Vale Scene
We are building an ambitious model of a typical part of the countryside of the Vale of White Horse as it was in the 1930s, with the aim of recapturing in miniature an impression of the calm unhurried beauty of the past.
You will see the village of ‘Pendon Parva’ built around an ancient hill-fort, the agricultural landscape surrounding the village, the derelict Wilts. and Berks. Canal, and the Great Western Railway main line.
Pendon Parva is an imaginary composite village with carefully chosen houses, attractive cottages and farms, which represent some of the best and most interesting in the Vale.
In the valley below, through farmland and meadows busy with harvest-time activities, pass sequences of trains of the period in their colourful variety, all modelled with care for historical accuracy.
The farms and villages of the Vale of White Horse continued in a rural tradition largely undisturbed by modern trends. Thatched cottages and farm buildings patterned the landscape, connected by a network of chalky lanes, plied locally by horse-drawn transport and only the occasional car or lorry.
This slumbering scene was only disturbed by the occasional express which, racing by on the Great Western main line, was a reminder of changing times.
