Miniature modeller on the Cut
Sally Clifford chats to miniature modeller Lee Smithson about his canal boat commissions.
IT’S a small world for miniature modeller and canal boat enthusiast Lee Smithson. Lee’s interest in modelling began when creating plastic model kits with his father. Since then he has progressed to scratchbuilt models.
Lee’s largest model to date was recreating a row of terraced homes, the street where his in-laws lived. “I gave it to my in-laws as a gift because it was their house and it was to challenge myself to see if I could do it,” he says. The idea to box frame his work came from his mum – soon the commissions came flooding in. “The frontage of houses in box frames are really popular,” says Lee. “It’s something different and quite unique. A lot of it is people like to remember their childhood home or their favourite pub.”
Creating miniature models has been a longtime hobby for Lee, a trained electronics engineer, but the demand has enabled him to give up his job as a medical equipment engineer to pursue his pastime as a full-time profession. He explains how showcasing some of his work on social media introduced his work to a wider audience: “By putting them on Instagram and Facebook, demand really exploded.”
With his electronics background, Lee is able to electrify some of his smallscale creations. One of the hardest models he has completed so far was of a fully working miniature of the River Don steam engine based at Kelham Island Museum. Many of Lee’s commissions have come from his home city of Sheffield which is part of his brand name Sheffield Miniatures. Small-scale replicas of narrowboats have also been among Lee’s commissions.
His first foray into narrowboating came when he hired one for his stag do. “For the last 10 years I have been going on narrowboats every year. I love the speed of it, it is just relaxing. It is a disconnection from the modern world and I love the canals,” Lee explained.
His first narrowboat commission two years ago was to recreate a narrowboat for the family that had owned it. The most recent was creating a smallscale version of a working coal barge as a reminder of a lost loved one.
Following the death of her father-in-law Rick Cooper, Amanda Cooper was keen for her husband, Stuart, to have a lasting reminder of his father. “Everyone knew my father-in-law as a boater, a coalman. He was happy boating, it was his life,” says Amanda. She knew a miniature of Rick’s boat, the Auriga, would be the perfect present. Working from a video and photographs, Lee was able to replicate the 72ft barge in miniature.
Speaking previously about his boating life in a documentary, Rick, who delivered coal, diesel and gas bottles from the barge, spoke of its early history. Built in 1935 for the Grand Union carrying company, it is understood to have worked as a fire boat on the Thames during the Second World War. Following nationalisation it is understood the barge became the property of the British Waterways Board and worked as a maintenance boat on the canal.
Amanda explained: “Our children presented the boat to Stuart and I have never seen him speechless in the 15 years we have been together. I knew when he saw it, it would be a daily reminder of his father.” Stuart recalls his father lived on a 35ft narrowboat for 10 years before moving on to Auriga.
He spent almost a decade working on his coal barge travelling up and down the Ashby. In the summer months Rick enjoyed travelling to shows accompanied by his butty boat, Gilbert, which provided him and his rescue dog, Cassie, with additional accommodation away from the workplace.
Stuart, who says his dad was living his best life on the canal, will treasure the precious gift from Amanda and their children.
“I was speechless when I saw it. The fact it is so detailed and such a perfect recreation, even down to the quirks,” says Stuart, referring to the stepladder his father carried on the boat which Lee has also recreated in miniature.
“He enjoyed that part of
his life and really made the most of it. He lived exactly how he wanted to live. He really enjoyed it.”
For more information on Lee’s work, visit: www. sheffield miniatures.co.uk