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00:00And in this series, we're taking that to heart.
00:05We're stepping into a world where cherished places from the past are brought back to life in miniature.
00:11It's like being detectives, isn't it?
00:13From family homes...
00:15I just miss it so much.
00:17...to grand public buildings.
00:19This building was so magnificent.
00:22I found my identity there.
00:24Each tiny model tells a big story.
00:27It's a beautiful project because it's all about love.
00:31The craft and skill of our team of miniaturists...
00:34I'll make it happen.
00:35Perfect.
00:37...shines through in every delicate detail.
00:43Oh, it's fabulous.
00:45Oh, my goodness. I don't believe this.
00:51That's beautiful.
00:52And while our models may be tiny,
00:55the memories they stir are immense.
00:58Welcome to the marvellous miniature workshop.
01:12The team are back with tiny tools and big ambitions.
01:16And this time, they're recreating a place built on hard graft and skillful craft.
01:26Some workplaces are more than just jobs.
01:28They are where skills are handed down and traditions begin.
01:32But can all these ingredients really be baked into one little miniature?
01:36Today, we're joined by master baker Stephen from Hemel Hempstead.
01:41Over the next few weeks, we'll be rising to the challenge and capturing a special slice of his family's past.
01:48Now gone, but not forgotten.
01:51Stephen, welcome.
02:01Hello, Sarah.
02:02Nice to see you, mate.
02:04Welcome to our little workshop.
02:05What brings you here today?
02:07I'd like a model made of my bakery, Mansbridge Bakers.
02:10Have they explained to you that you'll have to pay me in cake?
02:13Not yet, they haven't.
02:14OK, we'll work out a deal.
02:15Come and meet our miniaturist.
02:16He's called Lee, and he's brilliant.
02:24Rolling up his sleeves for this tasty challenge is masterful miniaturist, Lee.
02:31Hi, Stephen.
02:32Hello.
02:33Stephen, my tummy is rumbling in anticipation already before we talk about this fantastic bakery of yours.
02:40Tell us everything we need to know. What's its name and where is it?
02:44Well, it's Mansbridge Bakers, and it's in a village called Boxmore, which is Hemel Hempstead.
02:49It started in 1885.
02:511885.
02:52Yeah.
02:53And by relatives of yours?
02:54Yeah, I'm fourth generation, so.
02:56OK, so great, great, great.
02:59Great, great.
03:00Yes.
03:01They were all great.
03:02They were all equally great.
03:03OK.
03:04My dad and my uncle and my aunt were all born at the bakery, above the bakery.
03:07I met my wife there, and she was a Saturday girl.
03:10So, really, this building is sort of imbued with, you know, your family for generations.
03:16Oh, yes, definitely, yeah.
03:17How old were you when you started to learn the trade?
03:19I used to go in there from the age of eight with my dad.
03:21I loved going in with him.
03:22I was always pestering him if I could go in with him and help him.
03:25I'd love to see a photo of you at this time.
03:27Come on, let's have a look.
03:28People keep telling me it's cute.
03:29Oh, you're cute there, Stephen.
03:31No.
03:32Come on.
03:33Look at that cheeky chops.
03:34Yeah.
03:35I used to go out with my uncle, my uncle David, on the round when I was quite young.
03:38We were one of the last companies in the country doing door-to-door with horse carts.
03:43It was fun, fun times.
03:45This is my mum and dad.
03:46Yeah.
03:47Let's have a look.
03:48Outside the shop.
03:49That was our 100th year anniversary.
03:51That picture was taken.
03:52It's a great picture.
03:54Reg and Pauline.
03:55They were both characters.
03:56They knew everybody in the village.
03:58Is that Reg there again?
04:00Yeah, that oven was never off in my whole life.
04:05We were baking.
04:06It was never off.
04:07I get the feeling that you're very much your father's son.
04:09Oh, definitely, yeah.
04:10He loved making bread.
04:12I love making bread.
04:13When did you actually take over the bakery from your parents?
04:16My parents died within four months of each other.
04:20Had never been apart since I was married, really.
04:23It wasn't easy, I must admit.
04:24You must have been in the very depths of grief and then suddenly having to run this business.
04:29Yeah, it was hard, but you can't just say we can't do it anymore.
04:34You've got to carry on.
04:35So, Stephen, what would it mean to you to have a miniature model of Mansbridge Bakery?
04:41I suppose it would sort of bring my mum and dad back a bit.
04:44Just something for me to look at and remember them by, really.
04:49And take you back to that time when you were there.
04:51Yeah, definitely.
04:52And so, the outside of the bakers, what does that look like?
04:56So, this would have been what it would have originally looked like.
04:59Oh, look at this.
05:01That would have been in the 1890s.
05:04Mansbridge Bakers was originally a simple two-up, two-down Victorian terraced house.
05:11In 1885, Stephen's great-great-grandparents turned the front room into a shop
05:18and used the back room and the outbuildings to bake bread.
05:21Interesting.
05:22And is the front here, is that pebbled ashed?
05:25Yes, it still is.
05:26Yeah.
05:27Still pebbled ashed.
05:28Still pebbled ashed, yeah.
05:29So, is this as you remember it when you were growing up?
05:31No, I don't really remember it as the sash windows.
05:34It changed with bow windows.
05:36And so, how do you feel when you look at this, Lee, with the pebbled ash?
05:39Pebbled ash must be hard.
05:40Pebbled ash.
05:41Well, yeah, it is recreating it in miniature, but it's not impossible.
05:44So, you know, it's a great challenge.
05:45Yeah.
05:46Yeah.
05:47I mean, my task is to try and create something that evokes a memory in Stephen there, and
05:53although this is a great picture, that's not the era that Stephen remembers, so it needs
05:58a little bit of research to come forward a few years.
06:01So, are you hoping to go somewhere between 1895 and the 1980s, maybe?
06:06Yeah.
06:07So, recreating this little shop awning.
06:09Yeah, the little candy stripe.
06:10It's quite...
06:11Yeah.
06:12What colour was that?
06:13I think green and white.
06:16Dad loved green.
06:17If you stood still, you got painted green.
06:19So, are we going to have things in the window?
06:22I'm going to have a crack at some little tiny pastries.
06:25Yeah.
06:26Will we have to eat some as we search?
06:27Yes, we will.
06:28Research, research.
06:29Very important.
06:30Yeah.
06:31Well, what a delightfully delicious challenge you've got here, Lee.
06:33Absolutely.
06:34How are you feeling about it?
06:35I'm feeling confident.
06:36Good luck.
06:45Lee gets straight to work sketching out his plans for the model.
06:50So, I'm going to focus on the shop part of the bakery.
06:54This is where the business started four generations ago.
06:57I think it's great that it's been handed down to the generations.
06:59This is the building that Stephen will remember from when he took over the business and from
07:04back when he was a child, when his parents had it.
07:06There are a few challenges.
07:09This is the best photograph that we've got, but I know it's old.
07:12It's an old reference picture and there have been certain changes.
07:16Notably, the window has changed to when Stephen had it.
07:20So, the window that I'll be making will be a bow window with some nice Georgian panes.
07:25It's going to be a nice little cute model, I think.
07:30First, Lee laser cuts walls and glues them together.
07:35The side elevation has a finely etched brickwork pattern.
07:40Lee's model will be 50 times smaller than the real bakery, which means the whole thing is only 14 centimetres high.
07:48So, that's going to be quite cool, I think.
07:51Next, he needs to make the window and door lintels.
07:55They're cut from thin laser board and glued carefully into place.
08:00He paints the back of the building white, but before he can do the same to the front,
08:07he needs to create a pebble dash effect.
08:10So, he covered it in adhesive before sieving tiling grout over the top.
08:15Yeah, it's quite an important part of the model, I feel.
08:20Once dry, the pebble dash texture is also painted white.
08:25To make authentic-looking Victorian sash windows, Lee layers up tiny pieces of extra-thin laser board,
08:34gluing them together carefully.
08:37It's quite a delicate piece.
08:39The bakery had three doors, all of them different.
08:42Lee has designed and laser-cut different elements of the doors in layers.
08:47He glues them together to give a three-dimensional panel effect.
08:52The back and side doors are painted in Stephen's father's favourite shade of green,
08:59a personal detail that bakes memory right into the model.
09:05The glazed shop door gets a minuscule handle made from jewellery wire,
09:11carefully curved, cut and glued into place with tweezers and a very steady hand.
09:17That'll add a nice little detail.
09:22On the side elevation, Lee adds a cream base coat,
09:28then gently sponges the whole thing a deep red to give it a weathered brick texture.
09:34Finally, he hand-paints the lintels to resemble aged concrete,
09:39creating a wall that looks like it's stood for a century.
09:43I can't wait to see what he thinks about that.
09:57Stephen still lives next door to his family bakery in Hemel Hempstead.
10:01This is the bakery.
10:05Got the sign above there.
10:07And then we've got the Hovis sign.
10:09Lots of people call it the Hovis shop.
10:11This is a new window.
10:13We had a funny-shaped window in the front,
10:16which had all the cakes in, sort of like jam donuts, ice buns,
10:21all that sort of stuff.
10:23But sadly, these days, the window is empty.
10:29None of my kids were interested in coming into the business.
10:33They'd got other things they wanted to do.
10:36The building needed a lot of money spending on it.
10:39And there's only so much you can charge for a loaf of bread.
10:43It's not easy to make money these days.
10:47I think if you speak to anybody in business,
10:49they'll tell you exactly the same.
10:51Reluctantly, after 128 years of trading,
10:56Stephen had to face a painful reality.
10:59It was the 21st of November 2013.
11:04That was the last day that we traded.
11:07My whole life was the bakery.
11:09So it took me two years to decide to close the business.
11:13That was probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make.
11:16Because, obviously, I'm the fourth generation
11:19and I will be known as that one in the family
11:21that's closed the business down.
11:26Napoleon once called us a nation of shopkeepers.
11:29And while he meant it as an insult, he wasn't entirely wrong.
11:33Britain thrived on butchers, bakers and candlestick makers
11:37holding our high streets together.
11:39But today, many of those proud independents
11:42are fighting a losing battle against giant supermarkets,
11:46big chains and the ease of online shopping.
11:49In fact, last year, the UK lost an average of 37 shops
11:53every single day, with independent stores hit hardest.
11:57Mansbridge Bakery is not alone.
12:03My father would have been sad for us to close the business
12:05if he'd still been here.
12:07I felt responsible that I was going to be that one person,
12:12that one generation that couldn't take it any further forward.
12:16Stephen's now converting the building into flats.
12:20But everywhere he looks, there are memories of the past.
12:24The horse would be down here, waiting for the bread to be loaded from the bakery.
12:31And if you weren't quick enough, the horse would try and get in the bakery to get the chocolate.
12:35This is the original part of the bakery.
12:41I hate to think how many millions of loaves, rolls and everything's been made in here in its lifetime.
12:48Unbelievable.
12:49The building is part of who I am.
12:54It's made me, for good or for bad.
12:58So having a model of Mansbridge Baker at its peak would mean so much to me to keep the history alive.
13:05So there's lots of good memories there.
13:07Luckily for Stephen, Lee is on the case, restoring the bakery to its former glory in miniature.
13:28He's cleverly designed and laser cut, corrugated strips of MDF.
13:33They're stained brown and laid one by one to create a tile effect on the roof.
13:40Lee carefully paints the roof tiles a rich brown and then skilfully ages them with a thinned black oil paint
13:48to capture the weathered character of the bakery's long history.
13:53Lee fits the sash windows into place and then adds the glazed shop doorway
13:59before turning his attention to the most striking aspect of the facade.
14:05We want to make it as Stephen remembers it, so it has to be the lovely bow window with the wooden panes.
14:13At some stage in the bakery's history, the plain bay window of the Victorian terrace
14:18was replaced with a bigger bow window to create the feel of a shop front.
14:24The window here is featured in the photograph that Stephen supplied that had his mother and father in it.
14:31So it would have been the one when he was younger, when he remembered the business as it was.
14:34But making a curved bow shape at this scale is not easy.
14:40So the laser cut piece is the paned window frame.
14:43It's quite a delicate piece, so we need to get the curve looking right.
14:47It's 0.5mm thick, so it's really testing the limits of the cutter.
14:52If I try and bend it, it'll break.
14:54So to get that perfect curve, I'm going to dip it in some water and then wait for the water to soak into the wood.
15:00And then what I'm going to do is wrap it around a plastic bottle.
15:03Take it onto a plastic bottle and wait for it to dry.
15:06Once it's dried, it should form a nice, natural-looking curve.
15:13An hour later, the curve has been created.
15:16Lee adds tiny sills to the top and bottom,
15:19and the window is primed and painted.
15:21But now he's built it, he has to fill it.
15:25What I'm going to do is put a range of confectionery and some loaves of bread in the window
15:30to make it look like a shop.
15:32A nice little detail to show up in the window.
15:36He's a baker. He needs to have bread.
15:39To create white bread, he cuts a strip of foam into minute oblongs
15:44and squeezes one side with tweezers to produce the classic fresh-baked shape.
15:49Lee's little loaves have a crusty history behind them.
15:54Back in Tudor times, only the nobility ate white bread as it wasted more grain.
16:00And in 1666, a blazing baker's oven was blamed for the Great Fire of London.
16:07Talk about a recipe for disaster!
16:09In 1928, the first automatic bread slicing machine revolutionised breakfast time,
16:18and was the best thing since, well, sliced bread.
16:21In wartime, everyone had to chew their way through the National Loaf,
16:26a dense brown bread born of rationing.
16:29Let's hope Lee's wares have a bit more tasty.
16:33The bow window would have had the display of cakes and bread for everyone to see in their lovely wares.
16:41It's quite an important part of the model, I feel.
16:44Lee makes tiny clay buns with a shiny gloss paint for icing.
16:48Then, with the little loaves and buns added, he carefully fits the bow window.
16:56It makes it look like a shop.
16:57Lee's determined to make the upper crust of miniature masterpieces.
17:10So, time for me to find out if we need any more ingredients for the perfect model.
17:16I've arranged to meet Stephen's Uncle David.
17:22Well, hello, you must be David. Nice to meet you.
17:25And you.
17:26I know, I've definitely got the right chap, because you look just like your nephew Stephen.
17:30Yeah, people say I look like him.
17:32Yes. I don't know if I do or I don't.
17:34Well, you do. He's got his good looks off you.
17:37Devilishly handsome, obviously.
17:38Yeah, I don't know about that.
17:40So, let's chat about this miniature model then of the bakery.
17:44Right.
17:45Obviously, it's got to be spot on.
17:47Right.
17:48It's got to be perfect.
17:49Now, Lee, our miniaturist, has sent me to get all your memories so we can build this little model.
17:52So, the whole family tree was there at the bakery?
17:55It was. I was born at the bakery.
17:57When did you start working at the bakery?
17:59Well, I used to do mostly delivery when I was about seven or eight and then just used to help my father on the round and carried on from there.
18:07Wow.
18:08We delivered the bread with a horse and cart, which we carried on with for a long time and most of the customers thought as much of the horse as they did having the bread delivered.
18:19And on a busy day, how many would you be delivering?
18:22Probably 300 houses.
18:24What, in a day?
18:25Yeah.
18:26God, wow.
18:27So, a busy life being a baker and Stephen got on board when he was a young lad, didn't he?
18:32Yeah, he used to come on the cart with us, yes.
18:34Do you remember?
18:35What are your memories of Stephen at that time? Was he a good lad?
18:37He was, you know, dedicated, like Stephen was what you call a proper baker.
18:42He just had it in his bones?
18:43He had it in his blood, yes.
18:44Yeah, yeah.
18:45Some people have and some haven't.
18:46I've got a photo here of the vehicle that Stephen used to help me on the baker's round with.
18:50So, who's driving the horses?
18:52Me.
18:53Oh, is that you?
18:54Yeah, I'm driving it.
18:55Oh, very cool there, dear.
18:56Yeah, yeah, I was young and...
18:57Yeah, dashing.
18:58Dashing, yeah.
18:59Dashing somewhere.
19:01This is Charlie, yeah, he was one of the favourite horses.
19:04He was dedicated to the job, yeah, see, there wasn't many like him, really.
19:09He's gorgeous, isn't he?
19:11I mean, in 63, when we had the terrible winter, we went round every day when the snow was two foot.
19:19But it was half way up the horses' legs, but we didn't let anybody down.
19:23Yeah, it was a different way of life, but that's the days gone by.
19:28Lovely, though, bring them back.
19:29Yes.
19:30So, David, are you thinking what I'm thinking here?
19:32Probably.
19:33I think this has got to be included in the build, do you?
19:36Yes, well, it was part of the bakery.
19:38I mean, everybody talked about the horse and cart as much as the bakery.
19:41And for Stephen as well, this will be a big part of his childhood memories.
19:45This will bring back memories for Stephen and all the family to look at.
19:50OK, so this is a cracking photo.
19:52Have you got anything else that will help with the detail and the colour of the actual...?
19:56Yeah, this one here.
19:57I've still got the vehicle in my garage.
19:59Oh, lovely.
20:00And it's still in very good condition.
20:02This is going to be so helpful for Lee, who's going to be making the model.
20:06Right.
20:07Because these colours are beautiful, aren't they?
20:08Yes, yes.
20:09The model of the bakery wouldn't be any good without the vehicle as well.
20:13It all matches up with what you're trying to do.
20:16So it'd bring everything back to reality as it was.
20:19It would be nice to see it all, you know, come back to life, like...
20:23Yeah, beautiful.
20:24Can't wait.
20:26Back in the workshop, Lee loses no time adding this new equestrian ingredient to his bakery model.
20:39I've never made a horse and cart before.
20:41No.
20:42It's going to be interesting to see how I approach this.
20:46Lee makes the cart by painstakingly gluing pieces of laser-cut MDF into shape.
20:53He's baked in every detail of the horse-drawn vehicle,
20:57from the standing platform to the crimson colour.
21:01Uncle David has actually given us some additional photographs
21:05which show that it's a nice red colour in reality.
21:08So that is what I'm doing right now.
21:13The whole cart was a deep, deep red colour with gold lettering
21:18saying Mansbridge's Bread, which is quite a tongue twister.
21:22The cart takes Lee four hours.
21:25The Mansbridge Bakery logo is carefully hand-painted onto its side
21:30and then a tiny axle made from slim polystyrene rod and laser-cut wheels are fitted.
21:36Something to remind Stephen of all those years doing morning deliveries.
21:41The horse and cart will add a nice little detail.
21:44The one he's not expecting, so I can't wait to see what he thinks about that.
21:49Next, for the shop awning, Lee makes a frame out of thin strips of laser board,
21:54then glues a printed copy of the green and white striped hood into the curve across it.
22:00Then he fits the whole thing into place above the bow window.
22:06He builds the low wall for the front garden with laser-etched brickwork on the sides
22:11and a capping detail to create 3D depth.
22:15Bricks are hand-painted and aged individually in different shades.
22:21He creates tiny pieces of moss, made from old kitchen sponges, chopped up in a blender and stained green,
22:31and then adds them to the base of the wall.
22:35Then the wall is fitted into place.
22:38It's the very same one where Stephen's parents once leaned,
22:42caught in a family photo during the bakery's 100th birthday celebration.
22:47Next, the original Hovis sign, part of the building since the 19th century.
22:53It does hold special significance for the bakery.
22:57It's recreated from thin card with raised letters glued meticulously into place
23:04and delicately painted in green and gold.
23:09It's the first thing you see when you come down the street.
23:11There's a great big Hovis sign which people recognise
23:14and even though the businesses have now gone, it's still there
23:17and I think it's a great thing to focus on.
23:21And last but not least, Mansbridge Baker's very own wooden sign,
23:26proudly displaying the family name.
23:29Lee sticks a tiny scaled-down photo of the real thing onto a piece of card
23:34before cutting the unique shape with a sharp scalpel.
23:38Finally, it's glued into place below the moss-covered roof.
23:43The icing on the cake.
23:45It's the part of the building that's the most iconic.
23:48So I just want it to look spot on.
23:50It's been a month since Stephen first came to us,
24:01hoping for a model of his precious family bakery.
24:06How are you feeling, Lee?
24:08Yes, I think I'm all right.
24:11And now it's time to see if Lee's miniature has risen to the occasion.
24:16Stephen, hello.
24:18Hello.
24:19Come here, fella. Nice to see you.
24:20And you.
24:21How are you doing?
24:22Not too bad, thank you.
24:23Good to see you, Stephen.
24:24All right, nice to see you again.
24:25So how are you feeling about seeing the model for the very first time?
24:28Just intrigued, excited.
24:31And Lee, for you, what have been the challenges about this build?
24:34So with the weight of four generations of bakers behind me,
24:37it was very challenging to make sure I got it right.
24:39Well, hopefully we're going to bring Mansbridge Bakers back to life.
24:42OK.
24:43Are we ready?
24:44Yes.
24:45V, two, one.
24:50Wow.
24:51Small but perfectly formed.
24:54Lee's miniature masterpiece is our smallest model yet.
24:58Complete with pebble dashed texture walls,
25:01a green striped awning,
25:03and the proud Mansbridge Bakery sign,
25:05you can almost smell the fresh bread.
25:08It's brilliant, really.
25:10You know, you can't fault it.
25:12If it was a cake...
25:13Yeah, you'd be scared to cut it.
25:15Is it cake?
25:16Is it real?
25:17Wrong show.
25:18Oh, right.
25:19Please don't try and slice into it.
25:21The Hovis sign and scarlet horse cart
25:25have been perfectly recreated down to the last brushstroke.
25:29Every detail a tiny tribute to Stephen's family business.
25:34Is this from how you remember it as a child?
25:36Yeah, this is how I remember it.
25:37So, from sort of 1970s it would have been looking like this?
25:41Yeah, late 70s.
25:42Late 70s.
25:43Late 70s.
25:44You're getting younger.
25:45I know.
25:46When was it, 90s?
25:47Brings back memories of being a child
25:50with the horse cart there on the round.
25:52Now, I met the formidable Uncle David.
25:54Yes, he's a character.
25:55Yes.
25:56Who told me that Charlie was your favourite.
25:58Charlie was my favourite, yeah.
25:59This is the cart that was used for the deliveries.
26:02Uncle David supplied some photographs,
26:04so I've painstakingly rebuilt it based off those photographs.
26:07That was a challenge.
26:08Another challenge was the curved bow window,
26:11but with glazing bars just half a millimetre thin,
26:14Lee pulled it off with precision.
26:17The bow window there.
26:18I mean, that doesn't look easy to make, Lee.
26:20It's not at all, no.
26:21The curve is quite tricky to replicate.
26:24You didn't have grey hair before you started making that window, did you?
26:27No, I didn't, no.
26:28What's in there? It's so tiny.
26:29What's in there?
26:30We've got a tiny iced finger,
26:31and we've got a couple of little sort of baked cakes,
26:34and some bread, obviously.
26:36Mansbridge bread.
26:37Fantastic.
26:38I'd love to know how many loaves of bread and cakes
26:40have gone through that door.
26:42So much history in one little building.
26:44Yes.
26:45For Stephen, this model is a heartfelt tribute
26:48to four generations of family dedication,
26:51hard work and craftsmanship,
26:54and most of all, to his beloved parents.
26:57Definitely reminds me of my parents, yeah.
26:59I can just picture my mum and dad there.
27:01So the awning, I think we had that done around about the 80s,
27:05when it was the 100th year,
27:07and there was a picture of my mum and dad leaning on the wall there.
27:10Do you miss it?
27:11Oh, I miss it, yeah.
27:12I lived right next door to it.
27:13I miss it all the time.
27:14But now you've got it back.
27:15Yes.
27:16Now you've done it justice.
27:20I think my first impressions were how realistic it looked.
27:23Lee's done a very good job in getting the detail of everything there.
27:29Seeing the model, it brought back my mum and dad.
27:32It puts a line under it, I think, in me.
27:35And then as the generations go on,
27:37it's something for them to look at and think,
27:39yes, it was a bakery, that was our trade.
27:41And it sort of gives it that full stop at the end of the sentence, really.
27:46Where is this scrumptious little model of Mansbridge Bakers going to live?
27:50Well, it's going to live on the shelf in the house,
27:52so that the grandson can see it.
27:54And, you know, mum and dad will be looking down on it
27:57and be quite proud of it.
27:59Thank you very much.
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