Lilliput Lane cottages popular with collectors

There’s something very charming about a building detailed and delicately rendered in miniature, none more so than a charming country cottage.

Perhaps the most enduringly popular cottages revered by collectors are Lilliput Lane. These iconic and accurately modelled buildings were launched by sculptor David Tate in 1982, just up the road in Penrith.

Putting his own house on the market to fund the company, and with just ‘seven employees and a dog’, David’s ambition was to capture Britain's ‘vernacular’ or native British architecture. And indeed he did.

David’s team would drive thousands of miles a year photographing regional cottages across the British Isles. Cast in amorphite, a special mix of gypsum, and a Lilliput Lane invention, final touches were added individually, using stones from that model’s area.

The initial 14 cottages, released in September 1982, were an instant success and soon joined by larger buildings of historic significance: castles, village churches, cathedrals and historic public buildings.

Collecting and trading Lilliput Lane has remained popular ever since, with the Lilliput Lane Collectors' Club boasting over 50,000 members world-wide at its height.

Eventually ceasing production in 2016, a large back catalogue means common models can be picked up for a few pounds. Attractive pieces in their own right, these lovely examples currently in the centre are priced £12 each.

For dedicated collectors, rarer limited editions, anomalies and production mishaps remain sought after such as those produced before the company settled on a name, including ‘Dale House’, ‘Acorn Cottage’ and ‘Coach House’.

Keep your eyes open for the rarest three, all produced in virtually double-figure limited runs between 1982 -83: ‘the Old School House Drapers’, ‘the Old Mine’, and ‘Cliburn School’.

Wonderful for getting kids enthused about our country’s geography, architecture and history.