Magor model: 1950s Monmouthshire village recreated
- Published
Two model makers are working together to finish the project one of them began 15 years ago. David Burton, 72, (right) began creating his model of Magor, Monmouthshire, after retiring to the village where he grew up. He is being helped by his new apprentice, warehouse worker Nick Shaw.
Mr Burton wanted to create a model showing the south Wales village as it looked during his childhood in the 1950s "before all the cars". He said: "So much has changed since then. You had cattle going through the village from different farms. That's all gone now."
The model remains incomplete because the former Abergavenny pub landlord had a heart attack. He was unable to work on it for around five years. It left large parts of the model unfinished and needing someone to complete the job.
Due to the model's size - 30ft x 15ft (9m x 4.5m) - it was also the case that Mr Burton had never seen it assembled all at once. Much of it was stored in the attic or his garden shed. He said: "I never displayed it because I never had the room."
This is where Mr Shaw stepped in. He persuaded his employer, Hasbro, to let him put it together, albeit temporarily, in the Newport toy store warehouse where he works. Here you can see that about a third of the model remains to be completed.
Mr Shaw, who collects clocks, met Mr Burton when he was buying clock parts from him and learned about the unfinished model. He was impressed by the detail. Here the stonework of a terrace from the chimneys to the boundary wall is made of pebbles individually ground into the right shape and then glued into place.
Mr Shaw has offered to finish the project using Mr Burton's original templates and working in the same materials, plywood, stone and superglue. He said: "Dai will show me how to pick the right stones and grind them down. The detail is tremendous. No wonder it has taken him years."
As people might expect, the model is built to the scale of a model railway. That enabled Mr Burton to buy many of the pieces he needed to add to its accuracy, such as this footbridge over the railway station platforms.
The list of models that have to be made include nine houses and the church. Mr Burton hopes it will allow him to achieve his ambition of offering a glimpse of the village as it once was. He said: "They were knocking so many things down. It's a shame really. People won't know what it was like."
But before they start on any properties, the model maker and his apprentice plan to finish the coal yard. After all, it is set in the 1950s when many steam trains were still running.
One piece of advice Mr Burton has given his new helper is that he will need plenty of glue. He said: "It cost me a lot of money in glue, hundreds of pounds."