Best friends Caroline and Jane have got dozens of dolls' houses as a result of their passion for creating life in miniature over four decades.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below. The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 students.
1 How many dolls' houses have Caroline and Jane made?
2 Where did Caroline and Jane meet?
3 When did Caroline start learning about woodwork?
4 Note down two 'jobs' that you need to know how to do to build dolls' houses.
5 Which animal do Caroline and Jane 'argue' about?
6 What idea did Jane have?
There are (1) more than 70 different dolls houses, all of different shapes, sizes, styles and ages in this collection that has been built up over 40 years.
It’s the life’s work of friends Caroline Hamilton and Jane Fiddick, who share a passion for dolls houses and a talent for bringing the miniature world to life.
(2) We were both at university together reading modern languages but I’m a year older than Jane.
Not quite, actually.
By a few days.
(3) When my youngest child turned three and went to playschool I could get out of the house on Monday mornings and go to woodwork for beginners and I started building the house sits behind me now.
The idea that she was building a dolls house made me think, I could have a dolls house again too, and one thing led to another.
We don’t think that many people know just how sophisticated the hobby is. (4) You have to be an upholsterer, a curtain maker, a wallpaperer, painter, electrician, woodworker… and if one of us has made something that we think it’s particularly successful, it’s a question of, oh, one for me and one for her.
Yes, absolutely, very bad form to make something for yourself only.
Oh, yes.
A match made in miniature heaven, or is it?
You’re very rude about (5) my rat.
Yeah, they’re too big and too nasty. I don’t like them.
They are very, very nice rats.
Their creations have been exhibited all around the world and now they are on permanent display at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire.
I’d like to give all the credit for this to Jane, and it was her bright idea (6) that we would suggest to Newby Hall that they could have our dolls house collection as a wet attraction.
It was very nice to think that they are going to be shared and going to be on show.
It’s going to be possible for both of us to pop back and just keep an eye on it from time to time.
But they needn’t think that we’re going to do the dusting every year.
Each tiny room is shown in amazing detail and peopled by characters like real life back stories.
You need to know who lived there. She’s weeping because she’s discovered that her husband has left all his money to his mistress.
Though hugely popular since Victorian times, are they still relevant for children today?
Oh, it’s so hard not to play with them once you see what it is.
I found it interesting like how detailed they are.
Most have taken them a long time for them to do.
With the hare and the tortoise really I leaped ahead and made a mess of things and just botched my way through, and she is the meticulous one and gets everything right.
As I so often say she does talk an awful lot of rubbish.
