Model village to rear of The Old New Inn

A model of the centre of Bourton on the Water village, built to 1:9 scale, dating from 1936-40.

MATERIALS The buildings are constructed in the main from larger blocks of Cotswold limestone, incised where appropriate to indicate coursing, with miniature Cotswold stone slate roofs, and glass inset for the windows. Boundary walls are Cotswold dry-stone walls built in miniature.

PLAN The model village is laid out exactly as the centre of the village appeared in the 1930s, covering the area from the old mill (used as the Motor Museum in 2012) in the north to the Old New Inn in the south, depicting the High Street and the River Windrush, and including parts of Station Road and Moore Road to the east of the High Street, and Victoria Street and Sherborne Street to the west. The only building not in its correct position is the parish church, which in reality stands just outside the area covered by the model; the model church is situated to the south of the model village.

DESCRIPTION The model village represents the core of the village of Bourton on the Water at the time it was constructed, with updated shop fronts and signs reflecting the changes in the retail premises which have taken place since its completion. The buildings, which number in the dozens, are all faithful reproductions of the full-size examples from which they are taken; these are largely Cotswold vernacular buildings from the C17, C18 and early C19, with some slightly earlier and some a little later in date, together with a few more polite buildings, such as the Lloyds Bank building on the High Street, with its C18 three-storey façade with canted bays and Venetian window, which stands over five feet high. The buildings are constructed from limestone ashlar to give tight joints, which are then incised where appropriate to reflect coursed stone, or left plain to represent an ashlar finish. The details of the various buildings are reproduced as far as possible in miniature, including the tracery to the windows of the churches, and the boundary walls, which are dry-stone walls on a tiny scale, with cock-and-hen coping or flat coping stones as appropriate. The buildings are all modelled in the round, with the same level of detailing to rear and side elevations as to the front. Only two of the buildings have visible interiors: the parish Church of St Lawrence, with its medieval nave and Georgian tower, has a complete interior showing the pointed-arched arcades, miniature pews and screen, with all details correct; these are viewed through a perspex pane in one wall. Similarly, the Baptist chapel has a complete set of interior fittings, visible through its wheel window and a perspex pane let into one wall. The river runs in its correct course through the model, with reproductions of the C18 bridges in their place. The model includes The Old New Inn, and in its garden, a model of the model village at one-ninth of the one-ninth scale of the original.