Pendon Museum.
Pendon Museum brings to the visitor the beauty of the English countryside and its railways as they were around 1930. Modelled on a scale of 1 to 76, the 70' long main exhibit displays a landscape with exquisitely detailed cottages, farms, fields and chalky lanes that recalls the quiet charm of a summer's day in the Vale of White Horse. A seperate exhibit captures the excitement of railways of this era as a cavalcade of trains moves across a superb Brunel viaduct on the edge of Dartmoor.
In addition to the Vale of White Horse landscape and the Dartmoor branch line, the museum is also the home of many railway memorabilia. One of these is the formative model railway known as the Madder Valley Railway. This entirely imaginary layout was constructed in the late 30s and 40s by John Ahern, probably the first railway modeller to appreciate that the scenery is as important as the trains in conveying a sense of realism.
Pendon Museum is in Long Wittenham, 3 miles NE of Didcot. (Map)
Open Saturdays and Sundays, 2 - 5pm.
Also Wednesdays during June, July and August.
Early opening at 11am on Good Friday to Easter Monday and May and August bank holiday weekends.
Closed weekdays (except as above) and December.
Prices: Adult - £3.00, OAP - £2.50, Children - £2.00
For further information, call (01865) 407365 or see their Web site.