I felt like a giant! (Babbacome Model Village)

Name: SusanLesley

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Product:	Babbacome Model Village
Date:	31/08/01 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful models, Good layout, Good price

Disadvantages: Quite a bit of walking involved

Babbacombe Model Village is the best of it’s kind that I have seen anywhere in the country.

It is situated a couple of miles inland from Torquay on the south Devon coast. There is a large car park, which is pay and display. I thought that this was a bit of a cheek really, as you would only need to park here if you were visiting the model village.

The entrance fee to the actual model village is £5 each for adults, I’m sorry I didn’t notice how much it was for children, and it is open every day except Christmas Day.

The day we went it was showery and so we were given a free plastic mac in a little bag, in case the heavens opened while we were half way round. I thought that this was a nice touch even though we didn’t have cause to use them. I’m sure they’ll come in useful one day!

The children are also given games and competitions to do as they walk round. There’s an alphabet challenge where they have to spot all the letters of the alphabet ‘hidden’ amongst the displays. There’s a competition called ‘Where’s Wally?’ for which they can win a free prize and there’s an Agatha Christie conundrum.

As we walked though the turnstiles it did begin to rain quite sharply so we dived straight into the café for a cup of tea. The café is set up a slight incline so that, when you are inside, you have a panoramic view of the whole of the model village. It stocks drinks, cakes, biscuits and light snacks.

In the same building as the café there is also a small gift shop selling mementoes of the model village and you can also buy return tickets for £2.50 each (adult) to revisit the village in the evening when it is floodlit - more about this later.

When we had finished our tea and the rain had stopped we ventured out for our tour of the model village. I won’t attempt to tell you about things in the strict order in which we saw them as I
would never remember them all, so I’ll just tell you about all the things that appealed to me in random order!

There is a viewing terrace with an open-air teashop at the top of the model village as you first go in and the view from here is really amazing. It was from here that we appreciated the sheer size of the site.

As you would imagine there are a lot of houses in the model village. These are faithful representations of real houses and the detail on these and everything else here is perfect. There is an avenue of houses, with someone mowing his lawn and various people standing gossiping. There is even a TV in one of the houses, which actually works – mind you it takes someone with better eyesight than me to see what was on!

There was a farm complete with animals and farm machinery, and a mine with the entire pit head machinery working.

The beach next to a small lake had a special area for nudists, Dave just had to look through the zoom of the camera! There was a car ferry go backwards and forwards across the lake and a cliff lift going up and down by the side of the beach.

They have now got a wind farm with one of the windmills that you see so many of down in Cornwall, and also an earth satellite station with a receiver dish modelled on the ones at Goonhilly.

The football ground is called Wombley Stadium and has a match in progress complete with a streaker running across the pitch. You can hear the crowd shouting and see the score flashing across the electronic scoreboard. I think the score was Torquay united 3 Manchester United 1 – in their dreams!

There were various clubs such as a health club, and old people’s club and a cricket club with a match in progress on the pitch.

The village green was playing host to the smallest flower show in the world, with marquees full of pots of flowers and stalls all around selling food and drinks.

The centre of the model
village was a town with floodlit advertisements like the ones in Piccadilly Circus. It is well worth stopping to read the names of the shops, as some of them are really funny. The only one I can remember is Robin M Blind the Turf Accountant, but that gives you the general idea.

Talking of funny names my favourite of all is the name of the stately home. It is called Lordelpus Hall – say it out loud to yourself if you don’t see why it’s funny!

There is a miniature playground on the outskirts of the town with children playing on see saws and swings etc.

On the far side of the model village is a hydroelectric power station, with the water cascading from it. This is quite new and very impressive.

There is a circus arriving in town with the animals in cages and the big top constructed in the park, with trapeze artists practising inside.

There are also one or two hotels and pubs around the village. At one of the hotels the window cleaner is busy at work and he finds a naked lady in her bathroom! The village boasts two churches one of which has some lovely stained glass windows.

Towards the end of the tour there is a house with its thatched roof on fire, with the fire brigade trying to extinguish it. The real smoke and flames are clearly visible, this is even more impressive at night.

There is an indoor display of some of the famous landmarks of the world including the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower and there is an excellent model of Stonehenge outside. In the indoor display there is also a mediaeval tableau and you have to find all the things that are out of place such as a mobile phone, Coca-Cola can, vacuum cleaner etc. I have to confess that we stood there ages trying to spot everything!

The miniature train runs all around the model village passing over a beautiful suspension bridge on its journey to the little station with passengers waiting on the platform.

There are tw
o or three sets of toilets strategically placed around the village. I had to laugh at the notice on the one. It said ‘International Toilets – Way In is Russian, Inside is European and Way out is Finnish!

The thing that really puzzled me was how on earth do they keep the grass so short? All the grass and hedges were real and the trees were all bonsai, but there was no way that a lawnmower could get onto the small areas of grass. I had visions of someone with nail scissors crouching down to cut all the little lawns!

We did buy return tickets and went again at night. I didn’t realise that there would be so much more to see!

Every streetlight and the car headlight were switched on and there were lights in nearly all of the houses. It was much easier to see what was inside the houses and every one was furnished with a family living there.

The floodlights were on at the football ground and the flashing lights in the disco were clearly visible. The town was a mass of lights as all the advertising hoardings were flashing on and off.

There were laser beams flashing around all the time and suddenly a voice came over the loudspeaker system to tell us that the earth station had picked up messages from outer space. The lasers focused on one spot and a miniature UFO came down and hovered above the ground complete with ‘space’ type music. It moved up and down a few times before finally disappearing.

We both really enjoyed our time there and were both glad that we had returned, as it looked quite different at night.

One tip – if you do go – wear some comfortable shoes – there’s a lot of model village to walk round!

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