Leonard Martin, based in Charlton Marshall, Blandford, is a dolls’ house enthusiast. But he doesn’t collect them, he actually creates them, all built to a scale of 1:12. NBVM went to meet the craftsman behind this collection of miniature buildings
by Katrina Ffiske

Leonard Martin’s garden in Charlton Marshall is home to two marvellous sheds. This treasure trove of tools and tiny buildings is where Leonard spends most of his spare time, painstakingly crafting model worlds that exactly replicate reality.
On a trestle table in one of these sheds, Leonard has set out a line of buildings for us to look at: a 1930’s garage, an antique shop and a grand Knight’s Templar hall. The exteriors and interiors are all immaculate and the details are finely worked, from the post box on the wall of the garage to the tools lined up on the wall above the hand-made work bench, even down to a car door lying on the bench waiting to be mended. Shields and armoury, hand crafted and painted by Leonard, hang on the walls of the Knights Templar hall. The table is set ready for a meal; a stag’s head hangs above the mantlepiece. No detail is overlooked: the hand-moulded plaster ceilings are coated with 24ct gold leaf; the outside of the house boasts 720 quoin stones and over 4,000 mock stones made from cardboard.
Your imagination drifts to other worlds and other times as you peer through the doors of Leonard’s miniature creations…

A labour of love
Leonard spends 12 hours a day working on his models. If he can, Leonard will create all the items in his models from scratch, or commission another artist. “I am passionate about creating things and will always try to make things from scratch if I can,” he says. “I try to limit what items are bought. I like to mould, bake and paint the food. I will cast mouldings for the walls and paint them, and obviously I make the furniture.”
Leonard’s biggest project, Langdon House, houses hand-painted oils by an Egyptian artist; floor boards are individually laid and polished, marble is painstakingly painted onto carved pillars and stair cases are hand-made and carved.
Langdon House took Leonard 26 years to finish. “I think I probably spent more than a third of my life working on this model,” he explains. “I wanted to build something to commemorate my mother Pearl and my brother Kenneth, who sadly both died. In 1987 I drew a picture of my perfect home; I based it on the Georgian style because I loved that period of architecture. And I spent the next 26 years creating what would become Langdon House, which is 6ft 2ins long and 3ft 6ins tall. It takes four men to lift it from room to room.”

Learned passions
Leonard was always creative. “My mother was a seamstress and had me doing crochet and needlework from a very early age,” he explains. “I am so grateful to her, because it gave me the patience you need to make miniature things.” This talent runs in the family – his brother, based in Gozo, spent 18 months hand-stitching the main stair carpet. The finished article was taken to Wilton carpets to be trimmed.
Early in his career, Leonard made displays for John Lewis. “John Lewis had the fourth floor in Bills of Bournemouth. The big event was Bills’ Christmas Grotto and the Easter Farm in the toy department. It’s amazing to look back at it. I created miniature farms and they would bring in live chicks, goslings and bunnies to run around the farm. It was so popular, people came from miles around.”
Leonard continues to spend hours in his garden shed making miniature buildings and objects, some of which are for sale.
If you’d like to know more you can call Leonard on 01258 489498.