Find the unexpected at Bygones!
There were no supermarkets for our great, great grandparents. Why not wander back in time to the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and visit our authentic, life-size Victorian Street set in 1897? Look out for the forge, smell the treats in the sweetshop and listen to the sounds of the hustle and bustle of busy Victorian life. Imagine yourself in the nursery, kitchen or parlour as the maid or even the lady of the house. You might want to avoid the resident dentist; he offers whisky but no anaesthetic!
Arriving in the 20th Century, why not take a break in the station café for a cream tea or upgrade to a high tea?
Return to your childhood, ponder over a fully reconstructed model railway layout themed on WWI and WWII. Imagine your ancestors in a WWI trench in France in 1916 or serving in the Far East in 1944, all part of the extensive military displays. Keep your eyes peeled for Queen Victoria’s Christmas present to the troops in South Africa in 1900, a tin with the original chocolate still intact. Consider life on the home-front waiting for the all clear, peer into an Anderson Shelter which would have been dark, basic and not home from home. Don’t forget to wave goodbye to the evacuees bravely waiting on the platform before you get on to the footplate of the 28-tonne steam engine, originally from Falmouth Docks.
Hear how the attraction started and evolved over 30 years from a hobby into a business. All items are original and displayed to provoke memories and give a taste of living in the past for all generations.
