My mini model collection that reminds me of home

AN artist who left Henley for Australia 18 years ago has created more Lego models of buildings from her hometown.

Kaz Taplin, who lives in Mandurah on the west coast of Australia, has created eight Lego models.

Her latest creations include Bagatelle toy shop, in Bell Street, where she said her father used to buy her Lego as a child, and a Wimpy restaurant, which used to be in Duke Street.

It adds to a collection which already included Gabriel Machin butchers and the town hall in Market Place and the Old Bell pub in Bell Street.

Mrs Taplin, who grew up on the Gainsborough estate, said creating the buildings helped her reconnect with memories from her hometown.

She said: “A lot of the buildings I have done just reminded me a lot of my childhood.

“Like Bagatelle, Mum or Dad would take me there and dad would buy me Lego. Dad used to also take us into the Wimpy on a Saturday.

“The Old Bell, that’s one of the oldest buildings in Henley. When I was at school, I used to work there in the evenings with my other school friends and do the washing and drying up and then later on do some serving just to earn some pocket money.”

Mrs Taplin said she works from photographs she finds online to base the designs of her models on. She said some of the buildings she tries to “fill in” from memory.

In Machin’s, she included a counter, eggs, sausages and fish, which she remembered from when she visited the shop.

In Tudor House, an antiques shop, she added milk churns, trunks, maps, bottles, swords and helmets.

Henley Villa has been fitted out with baskets, crockery, glasses and kitchen tools. Mrs Taplin said: “I look up what the picture is and how I want it and then I try to get out lots of the colours that I need and then just work from the bottom upwards and see if it works and if that doesn’t work, I have to take things out and start again.

“Some things can take quite a while and some are really quite quick. So I’ve tried to fill out everything in each building apart from the town hall and the cinema.”

Mrs Taplin, who paints miniatures in acrylic to commission, also writes poems and has been published in seven books. She has two children and four grandchildren who all live in Reading. Her youngest son lives in Australia. She said her family has a history in Turville dating back to the 1700s. Her mother’s home was Church Cottage, which was used in television programmes including The Vicar of Dibley and Goodnight, Mister Tom.

She said she has no plans to stop building yet.

Mrs Taplin said: “I want to do the Bell Bookshop next, and then I want to do some of the older buildings.

“I love all of the architecture in Henley. Even the Oxfam shop, up near the town hall. The architecture of the buildings is just beautiful.”