Pendon Museum is building an ambitious model of a typical part of the countryside of the Vale of the White Horse as it was in the 1930s. The model is still under construction, but already you can see a substantial part of 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 sweeping from the junction station at Pendon Parva through the fields on its way from London to the West Country and the Midlands.

In the 1920s and 30s, 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, rich in tall elms, was only disturbed by the occasional express which, racing by on the Great Western main line, was a reminder of changing times.

Of course, modernisation was beginning to make its mark; some roads were tarred, the doctor found a motor car useful for his rounds, and the railway itself began using motor buses experimentally to link Swindon with nearby villages.

From an aesthetic point of view, many changes were less desirable; for instance, a pretty thatched cottage would be economically repaired or insensitively 'improved' with an asbestos or corrugated iron roof, and, in later years, even modern box-like extensions. It is to recapture in miniature an impression of the calm unhurried beauty of the past that Pendon is creating its Vale scene.

Elegant houses, attractive cottages and farms, carefully chosen to represent some of the best and most interesting in the Vale, are being assembled into an imaginary setting - a composite village called 'Pendon Parva'. In the valley below, through farmland and meadows busy with harvest-time activities, will pass sequences of trains of the period in their colourful variety, all modelled with care for historical accuracy. Of this ambitious project visitors can already see a large part of the village, complete in all details. Plans have been drawn up for the whole Vale scene, and work is well advanced on building the railway. Visitors are frequently able to watch the modellers at work.