Bekonscot is proud of its association with another famous Miniature Town in The Hague, Holland. Madurodam is named after George Maduro, a Dutch war hero who fought the Nazi occupation forces as a member of the Dutch resistance and died at Dachau concentration camp in 1945
Following his death, George’s parents wanted to create a memorial to their son. Having heard about Bekonscot Model Village and how it donated its profits to charitable causes, Mr and Mrs Maduro decided to create a similar miniature world celebrating community life in the Netherlands.
S.J. Bouma was appointed as architect of Madurodam, and he visited Bekonscot for inspiration when planning his vision for Madurodam which first opened in 1952. Like Bekonscot, each year Madurodam shares its profits between a number of worthwhile causes through the Madurodam Children’s Fund.
To this day the staff of Bekonscot and Madurodam keep in contact with each other, arranging regular visits and sharing of ideas.
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton moved to Green Hedges in Beaconsfield in 1938. She always wrote from memory with very little research or planning. Her imagination flowed directly onto paper via a small portable typewriter which she would use balanced on her knees whilst sat in her Beaconsfield home. At the peak of her writing she was publishing up to 50 books a year completing 6,000 – 10,000 words a day.
Whilst living at Green Hedges, Enid was friends with Roland Callingham, the founder of Bekonscot Model Village, and in 1946 she wrote a short story entitled The Enchanted Village which described a visit to Bekonscot with her niece and nephew. She remained living at Green Hedges until shortly before her death in 1968. The house was then demolished to make way for a development of new houses aptly named Blyton Close.
In 1997, on the centenary of Enid Blyton’s birth, a scale model of Green Hedges was unveiled at Bekonscot by her daughter Gillian. The model includes a figure sitting on a garden bench with a typewriter on her knees and a group of 4 children and a dog about to embark on a famous adventure.