HIS 1970s photo shows Southport's Famous Model Village, for decades a popular attraction for day-trippers from across the North West.
Opened in 1957, the Land of the Little People, as it was also known, was a detailed scale model of an English town set in two acres of beautiful landscaped gardens.
A favourite childhood haunt of many, the Lord Street attraction enchanted visitors with its miniature hospital, school, castle, airport, farms shops, thatched village and tiny model railway.
But by the end of the 1980s, it had been demolished to make way for a new shopping and leisure complex - a project eventually abandoned - and the site is now occupied by a Morrisons supermarket.
Pat and Barry Dodd from Kew sent in this snap of their daughter Natalie, then aged four, on a visit to the village in 1972.
She was with classmates from Mountwood Preparatory School in Ainsdale, which has also since been knocked down.
Pat, 66, said: "The village was a magical place for children and my two daughters went each year and loved it. "There were a lot of objections when it was demolished. It was such a shame."
Pupils of Mountwood Preparatory School in Ainsdale visit the Famous Model Village in 1972
The original owners, Harry, Tom and Bill Dobbins, opened two more model villages in the 1960s - Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay, Devon and Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk - which are still going today.
Yet Southport has not lost out, as local businessman Ray Jones points out.
In 1996, Ray set in motion his plans for a new model village in Kings Gardens, over the road from the site of the old village.
"The current Model Railway Village has no connection to the old model village, other than we did consult with the original owners, the Dobbins family," explained Ray.
"The old village was very popular in its heyday, but I remember it became quite decayed and the whole lot was scrapped."
The Model Railway Village features one-and-a-half acres of scenic miniature landscape with a country village scene and one of the largest garden railway systems in the UK, with five trains continuously running on 500 metres of track.
For more information call 01704 538001 or visit www.southportmodelrailwayvillage.co.uk
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