Flookburgh man finds new home for miniature Lake District village at hotel grounds

• Video report by Granada Reports correspondent Paul Crone

A man who has spent the last 30 years building a model village by hand has found a new home for it in the grounds of a hotel.

Edward Robinson, 77, from Flookburgh in Cumbria has spent decades working on a Lakeland model village.

His original village display was closed in 2021 but is now moving to the the Damson Dene Hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere.

There are almost 80 slate buildings in the model village including Beatrix Potter's house and the well-known Bridge House in Ambleside.

Each individual house can take up to six months to complete.

Edward said: "I had built with limestone but I just got bored and I didn't get bored with slate."

When asked where he gets the patience to build the houses from, Edward said: "You just have to bite your tongue when you feel like swearing.

"I like the old rugged house, the old barn doors that are rotted on the bottom and twisted roofs.

"I just thought they were pretty amazing."

Jonathan Denby, Owner of the Damson Dene Hotel said: "The attention to detail is astonishing. He's captured the essence of all these houses.

"When they're all together you just think this is wonderful."

Another addition to the garden, are life-sized bronzes of Beatrix Potter, sat on a bench and talking to a standing John Ruskin made by Lancaster based sculptor Alan Ward.  

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