This shows the complete set of 44 cottages, each in their standard colour scheme.
Usually associated with the Country Cottage Collection is the Country Church. The model is based on St. Peter’s church in James Hart’s home village of Felsham, Suffolk. It is the church in which I was christened, and also married. More poignantly it was where Mr. Hart’s funeral service was held when he passed away in April 2004.
These models were not finished by the team of decorators who painted the cottages, but rather by James Hart himself. They are found in a grey and also a brown colourway.
The Pub, model #33, came with 6 different names. Some also with the local brewery name ‘Greene King’.
An absolutely brilliant collection with which I have got involved. Finding a number of pieces in charity shops and online.
However, my ignorance is its usual best. Why have models got a letter as well as their series number. I have a couple of them which show a G and a S beside the model number. would someone be good enough to explain.
Hi Peter.
The cottages usually have the model number, the decorators initial and sometimes the colour variation.
Hope you have fun collecting them.
Regards.
Ben Hart.
Hi!
I just discovered Mudlen End Cottages yesterday, and I’m hooked 🙂
I have a question regarding them. I’ve been searching them on eBay and have found several that say “Suffolk Cottages Made in England for Around the Corner West Hollywood CA.”
There are some of these that look like Mudlen End pieces, but then there are some that look like none of the original 44, nor any of the Sagebrush Junction collection.
Do you have any information about these?
Thanks!
Hi Erika.
The answer to your question can be found on the page “The Late 70’s” on my blog. I have just added more content to that page regarding the Around The Corner products.
I hope that you have a great time collecting Mudlen End , it can become an obsession however, beware!
Many Regards.
Ben.
Do your village pieces say the name of the area the piece replicates . Do you have any of Orford castle ?
Hi Holly.
A couple of the cottage collection are called ‘West Country’ but otherwise there are no named areas.
No castles either, sorry.
Regards.
Ben Hart.
Dear Ben, thank you for a wonderful website. I wonder if you have any thoughts about the dating of different styles of stamp on the bottom of the cottages? I have three different styles of stamp on the cottages I have collected, with different combinations of upper and lower case letters. i) Mudlen End Studio FELSHAM SUFFOLK ii) MUDLEN END STUDIO FELSHAM SUFFOLK iii) in a box, MUDLEN END STUDIO FELSHAM SUFFOLK ENGLAND. Do you know if they were in use over different time periods, or where some for export and others not?
Hi Philip(again).
I do know that there was a progression of stamps, and even ink colours, used over the years and the addition of ‘England’ implies that that was when exporting became more common, but I don’t think there was real ‘thought’ put into the actual design as such, obviously size was an issue, they had to fit onto the base, but as for being upper or lower case, or in a box or not I’m not sure it was really a consideration. I can visualize my father going to the stationers and ordering the stamps with probably the wording jotted down on a piece of paper, then maybe between them they came up with the finished item look.
At the packing station in the studio the stamps would be laying around as were the ink pads, if the stamp got lost or fell behind stacks of boxes you’d just grab another one, with no great thought behind what it looked like. As with the ink pads, if one dried out you’d just use another one, there are stamps on the bases with the ink from the signage from the front of some models, the bank or forge for example, that was ceramic ink not just stamp ink for the bases. So really there was no serious science behind the stamps as far as I know, apart from now being able to give a particular cottage a vague time line.
I hope this kind of answers you query.
Regards.
Ben.
Thanks Ben. Makes sense. Your description of the studio is very evocative.