Vintage rural/village buildings

I have several of these, not strictly animal related (such as a stable or pig sty), but originally part of farm/village series.

First, a very nice church, probably made circa 1930 by Peacock & Co

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The three gents standing outside, no doubt engaged in deep theological debate, are (left to right):

1) Britains 'Country Clergyman'
2) Britains 'Village Curate', often called 'the thin vicar' by collectors. A rare and expensive item, only made 1927-41.
3) John Hill & Co Vicar. A relatively common & cheap item, but I have seen it for sale on eBay described at the Britains Curate, with a high price tag. I suppose one has to be charitable and assume the sellers really didn't know.  

Now for three buildings related to the arable/cereal growing sector of farming, which in terms of toy/model animal collecting would obviously serve as going with horse drawn carts, ploughs, etc.

First a windmill, probably made by Peacock & Co in the 1930s.
John Hill & Co made a Miller & assistant carrying a sack to go with it.
Its size is in reasonable proportion (as toy buildings go) for 1:32 figures, and certainly a vast improvement on the few tiny (1:100 scale?) lead windmills made by a few companies.
The Amersham Toy Co. also made a nice big wooden windmill, but I don't have one.

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Now a granary (grain store building), which were traditionally raised up to prevent rats getting in.

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Now a building which I've taken as being a miller's (rather than a farmer's) barn/store, with loft above for rat proof grain/flour storage.

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Very nice old buildings!!

All these old buildings are delightful Dave. They certainly would have been integrated into a farm environment by a child lucky enough to have them.

Thanks for the images and the information.

Very nice again!

Wonderful!   

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Another village building, this time a pub/garage combo. probably made about 1930, probably by Peacock & Co. Back in 1930 there were still relatively few cars on the road, not enough to keep a filling station in business in small villages, so petrol was sold as a secondary activity by local pubs, shops or blacksmiths (many of which saw the way things were going, and switched from shoeing horses to repairing cars).

The figures in the photo are:

Innkeeper and seated milkmaid & stool by John Hill Co.
Country Yokel type person with beer tankard by Pixyland/Kew (There is also a seated beer drinker, which I don't have - both are rare & expensive.)
Dog: Not sure if UK made by Pixyland/Kew or German made by Georg Heyde.
Petrol Pump: Britains
Oil Cabinet: Taylor & Barrett.

Looks so good! Like them all so much, but this one is my favorite. The dog looks also realistic and the whole building is like a real. Thank you   

Haha, wonderfull! Think of this combination today... Only drive when drunk, haha.!  

That's is religiously wonderful!
These buildings, would hardly work convincent in Portugal once both church and windmill are completely different from Portuguese rural buildings, though I just love htem.
Do you have any idea if these buildings followed a real building, for example the church? Is it an identifiable kind of little rural church of England?
Thanks for sharing!

I have no idea whether they were based on any real buildings in particular - all are typical of their types in English countryside.
It would only be possible to discover if any of them were based on specific buildings after it is discovered for sure who designed and made them, and where they lived - and then see if any of these buildings are still there now (the church would be, but questionable about the others).

DaveScriv wrote:

I have no idea whether they were based on any real buildings in particular - all are typical of their types in English countryside.
It would only be possible to discover if any of them were based on specific buildings after it is discovered for sure who designed and made them, and where they lived - and then see if any of these buildings are still there now (the church would be, but questionable about the others).

Thanks for your answer Dave, it would result in a very hard exercise. :)

Roger wrote:

DaveScriv wrote:

I have no idea whether they were based on any real buildings in particular - all are typical of their types in English countryside.
It would only be possible to discover if any of them were based on specific buildings after it is discovered for sure who designed and made them, and where they lived - and then see if any of these buildings are still there now (the church would be, but questionable about the others).

Thanks for your answer Dave, it would result in a very hard exercise. :)

If you see my latest post in the zoo enclosures thread, you'll see an example of a toy which is probably based on a real building, plus Tri-ang made a series of castles based on real ones. Generally though, I imagine designers took inspiration from illustrations in books and picture postcards at the time, both photo of real places and artist drawn (idealised versions of real places or completely fictional). Plus, remember toy buildings are always very simplified and cut down, as true 1:32 models of even quite modest buildings would be far too big for toys. This is one reason why I'm more interested in toy farm buildings than the others - a toy pig sty can be more realistic than a toy castle.