The challenge of making your own little world

Carolyn Upton, who lives at Eggleston, has always had an interest in handicrafts, her mother having been a tailoress. "I used to watch her at work and she guided me with things like dress-making, so I suppose tackling woodwork was a natural progression for me," she told the D&S Times.

Her interest in dolls' houses was first fuelled about 12 years ago. She lived at Heighington and was asked by an elderly resident if she could renovate one dating from the Twenties.

"I stripped it down completely and did it up with ordinary materials, which you would not do if you were restoring it to its former glory," said Mrs Upton. "But the lady wanted it purely for her grandchildren to play with."

However, once the job was done it set her thinking that she would like a house for herself, but she had no idea how to set about making one.

"I sent away for plans, but they were for children's houses and I wanted to build a proper scale model," she said. Then fate took a hand.

Mrs Upton was a member of Shildon Flower Club, which had planned a visit to a school in Jarrow which was running workshops on how to make Christmas arrangements.

She walked into the wrong room by mistake and, although she went on to complete her decorations, she went back to ask if she could enrol on the woodwork course she had stumbled on.

"It was very much a learning curve," she said. "I had to learn how to read a plan and what materials were needed.

"Then I was faced with a sheet of wood 8x4 and with cutting everything down to size."

So successful were her efforts that the first two she made, she sold. But, still wanting a house of her own, she set about making a stylish Victorian affair complete with bay window and period chimney pots.

Not only did she do most of the woodwork (a friend helped with the turned legs on the staircase), she also set about furnishing it.

Her aunt, who is also an enthusiast, lives near Hove in Sussex, where the pair enrolled on a five-day course. "We learnt to make something different every day," said Mrs Upton.

One day she made a miniature barometer, which now adorns the parlour wall of her Victorian house. Another day saw the completion of a miniature mantel clock, which is still in perfect working order.

She was also taught how to make tiny elaborate wigs for dolls.

Her earlier talents then came into play as she turned her hand to making a "clippie" mat and to creating beautiful carpets in cross stitch.

"However, things don't always go swimmingly, and I had to learn by trial and error that you have to do things in some sort of order," she said. "I fitted the stairs in before laying the carpet down. Try fitting miniature stair rods up three floors and you will know why I never did that again!"

Her next challenge was to tackle a Tudor house. "This was much more difficult as it has a tiered effect that makes it look top heavy, and beamed ceilings," said Mrs Upton.

She managed to get her hands on some lovely oak, which she used to make authentic floorboards. "It was ideal because it made for slightly uneven boards, which you would expect to see in a house from that period," she added.

A delightful aspect of the house is that the candle sconces and candelabra actually light up.

The effect was achieved by Mrs Upton channelling out the walls to install electrics, giving the candles a flame effect.

The roof, which had to be constructed in strips, took her ten hours to complete.

"I had 50 sheets of A4 plans for that house, so it was quite a challenge," said Mrs Upton. "But the satisfaction and feeling of achievement when it is finished is absolutely wonderful."

A former assistant manager at a care home, she ran a programme in which she took the house for residents to look at in a bid to get them talking.

"It was very worthwhile, because it triggered off a lot of reminiscing and once they got talking they found they all had things in common, so it helped cement new friendships as well as giving them an interest," she said.

After the Tudor house, she built a shop along the lines of the BBC programme Open All Hours, calling it J Whitaker and Daughter after her mother and grandmother. But that too was sold when she needed room for further projects.

She had been building her houses on a scale of 1:12, but then went down to 1:24, which meant even tinier and more fiddly working.

Her latest project is a pub, tearoom and ladies' fashion shop. She has almost completed the interiors and reckons another full day of work will see the outside finished.

The pub is to be called The Burrel. "My husband is a model engineer and has built a model traction engine called the Burrel, so it seemed quite fitting," said Mrs Upton.

All her buildings feature some of her own hand-made furniture. One of her favourite pieces is a Davenport, which features half a dozen tiny drawers.

"It was extremely fiddly, but I am very pleased with the end result," she said.

She has also made a wardrobe from pear, which she says is very good to work with as it is thin and not prone to splitting.

She attends specialist fairs for things she can't produce herself, such as Victorian bathroom suites and William Morris miniature version wallpaper, while her aunt's acquaintance has made her some three-piece suites from glove leather.

She is so keen on her hobby that for the last seven years, together with her aunt, she has spent a week on a 'dolls' holiday' in Staffordshire, run by woodwork teacher Peter Alden. It is a residential course taking five or six people at a time, of which the majority are women.

"I would not say I am a fanatic, because like any hobby I can go away and leave a job and come back to it later," said Mrs Upton. "It probably takes me about three months to construct a house once I set my mind to it."

She recently gave a well received talk to members of Barnard Castle Golf Club, where she is lady captain, to raise money for breast cancer.

But she has no plans to join the speaking circuit as the houses are extremely difficult to transport on a regular basis without damaging