Tiny trail, tinier villages

Tucked behind Bourton-on-the-Water’s paradoxically named Old New Inn, where an 18-year-old Gustav Holst conducted the local choral society, there’s a mind-boggling miniaturised wonder: a one-ninth scale replica of the village, built in the 1930s. But it’s no ordinary model village. For within its shrunken confines there’s an even dinkier version of Bourton, which in turn dwarfs another. Already feeling like Gulliver, you may need a magnifying glass to make out its pint-sized and pinhead clones. So that’s a village within a village within a village within a village within a village within a village. Got that?

GETTING IN: Fans of Hot Fuzz (and other adults) can be ‘a big cop in a small town’ for the princely sum of £4.50. See theoldnewinn.co.uk/modelvillage for opening times and concessions.