England #21 - Teeny Bourton-on-the-Water in The England Chronicles - September 2024

(Tuesday September 17, 2025)

Back to Bourton-on-the-Water for the last piece of this very drawn out day! We did more walking around, had a beer outside at The Kingsbridge pub, and then went to the Miniature Village. 

The Kingsbridge from the side where we were sitting. It’s on the river, as is everything, and was SO pleasant. As you can tell it was a stunningly beautiful day.

I had a bitter, the darker one - of course forgot to note what it was, but of course it was good. I also forget what Kim’s was, but it was fruity and sweetish. Beavertown Brewery has scads of interesting beers. 

I have just realized that although I keep calling it the Miniature Village, it’s actually called the Model Village. It’s a one-ninth scale replica of the entire town that was started in 1936 and finished in1940. There have been updates through the years as things change, like adding Birdland and the Motoring Museum. There are around 100 buildings, a teeny river, and bridges you can walk across like a giant . And omg, apparently there is ALSO a scale model village of the scale model village which itself includes a scale model village and inside THAT scale model village is the last scale model village which is painted!! Apparently it’s in a covered area and there’s another small (hahaha!) charge, but we completely missed it and now I have GOT to go back!! 

Well, the first scale model village was just ridiculously fun, so at least we did get to see it. Between the size and the shadows it was kind of hard to get good pictures of but of course I took eleventy thousand anyway. 

This one is from the viewing platform.

  Giant shadow.

The inside of the church, with teeny people and enormous coins. 

I love how they work in foliage -

Teeny Motoring Museum! It had been a mill before it became the Motoring Museum and has an unfortunate hunk of shadow right in the doorway.
 

The doorway and old truck from a slightly different and less shadowy angle. 

Kim being a giant. 

The river and bridges. 

Teeny greenhouse. 

Teeny Birdland! Sadly hard to really make out thanks to a poor angle and unfortunate reflections. 

Teeny and hard to see cat in a window. 

After our Teeny Bourton-on-the-Water experience we were ready for dinner, so went to the Old Manse Hotel. I had breaded prawn scampi which I managed to not take a picture of, and an absolutely delicious porter from the North Cotswolds Brewery called Hung, Drawn and Portered. I did get a picture of that. 

Next stop, our one night trip to Wiltshire!