This is one of a series of videos taken by Harry Hickman from 1968 to 1970 his family had them converted to dvd and sent the originals of to the national archive but were kind enough to lend them to me to put on youtube to share with us all.
For those of you who haven’t been up on the westcliff for a while the model village has closed, like most of our leisure facilities gone for good.
News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Excellent video - were those ships on a wire, or radio controlled? It's made me even more miserable at all the great things Ramsgate has lost before I've had a chance to see them...
ReplyDeleteStill, a quick count-up reveals that I seem to have 28 different postcards of the model village, as well as a set of 10 Vistascreen 3D views. Let me know if there's scope for using them somehow.
Zumi I have made inquiries for you about the boats, bicycle wheels were immersed in the water with wires running on them the boats being attached with a special toggle fitting.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the pictures of the model village goes I think we could run into copyright problems using anything post war.
I expect the copyright rests with the owners of the Model Village, who will have commissioned the photos and postcards, or with the postcard companies - Jarrolds (for the colour ones) seem to have ceased trading in 1959 as far as I can see, so not to much of a worry from that side of things - I'll keep collecting for a while and get back to you...
ReplyDeleteAnd nicely ingenious with submarine bicycle wheels - holding your breath while pedalling must have been tricky tho' :-)
ReplyDeleteSplendid old films! Thanks for sharing them with us Michael.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt travelled from the hoverport in the 60s, and swears blind she shot some footage with her swanky Super 8 camera. I must get her to look it out.
This is all down to the kindness of people who lend me material to copy for publication, but handy for us all as they often go on to donate it to our local museums.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteGreat film clip, my father once owned the model village and all the family work there at onetime or another. I have also added a couple of clips to YouTube and will see if I can find some more.
Zumi,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working at the village, I remember hearing a little boy say to his father "Why has that boy got his bicycle in the river?" when I was trying to get the boat back on track!!!
One of the earliest photographs of me was taken about 1963 or '64 in the model village - at night I seem to remember? Must see if my dad still has it.
ReplyDeleteI've just stayed in Ramsgate this weekend and was very sad to hear that the village is no more. However the gentleman I spoke to said that some of it had been moved to the grounds of a big house near Margate? I didn't catch the name...
Thanks for the memories!
where has the model village gone???????
ReplyDeletewhere has the model village gone???????
ReplyDeleteIt closed in 2003
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