Frank Hornby: Inspiring future generations
The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust
Maghull’s Frank Hornby
Heritage Centre
A journey that started with humble beginnings, tinkering with a toy to entertain & educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician & millionaire.
Visitors to Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre please note that its opening hours/days are the same as Maghull Library, so this Christmas/New Year, the Heritage Centre will be closed from 5pm on December 23rd to 10am on 3rd January.
The Frank Hornby plaque is now back up and next to the Ken Dodd statue at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station. Hornby was born on Copperas Hill next to the station but his childhood house was demolished many years ago when the station was enlarged.
Mo Kundi has been honoured with an MBE
We are delighted to share that Frank Hornby Heritage Centre Trustee (and Sefton Carers Centre’s Chair of Trustees) has been honoured with an MBE as part of the Kings Birthday celebrations in recognition of his achievements and services to Sefton Carers Centre.
[Read more about this great event on the Sefton Carers Centre website here]
The Gerry/Sylvia Anderson Dinky Toys connection
STRIPEY The Magic Mini (Dinky Toys No. 107)
This car is not associated with an ‘Anderson’ TV series like the others displayed at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre i.e. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Space 1999, Joe 90 and Secret Service.
It's connection is with a children's comic launched by the Anderson's called Candy and Andy; frankly a rather bizarre concept. Here's a link to explain things in more detail:-
https://dinkytvspace.com/107-stripey-the-magic-mini/
The model displayed at at Maghull's FHHC is actually a refurbished one as originals are both rare and very expensive.
Recording the Memories of people who worked at Liverpool’s famous Meccano Factory
We’ve record the experiences of Ernie Busby during his working time at the Meccano Factory. This is the first such recording the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre has undertaken. One of our trustees conducted the interview and the recording has subsequently been edited and turned into a YouTube video by a Sefton Libraries volunteer. Please access it via the link below:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qHSXTjEz9I
We hope you enjoy listening to it and if there are other Meccano employees out there who may wish to participate in this project please email Tony Robertson at t3robertson@gmail.com
The project aims to digitally record the working memories of former employees which would otherwise be lost.
Seen at Southport model railway show - Nov 25
An 00/Dublo layout by Austin Moss who was running Hornby, Triang and Wrenn rolling stock.
The amount of Hornby Railways 00/Dublo that must have been made/sold over the years will be huge and with Liverpool's famous Binns Road Meccano Factory pretty much at the centre of it all until the 1960/70's.
National Museums Liverpool have a podcast all about Maghull's famous resident Frank Hornby
Les French & Tony Robertson take part from the Frank Hornby Trust to help tell the story of the world famous toy maker and his influences -
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/frank-hornby-national-museums-liverpool-podcast
This website aims to explore all things in the Hornby Universe, past and present, with the objective of generating a vast knowledge base in order to educate and connect enthusiasts.
The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust runs and curates the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre in Maghull on Merseyside, the Town where Frank Hornby lived for much of his adult life.
The Heritage Centre is within Meadows Leisure Centre on Hall Lane Maghull, L31 7BB. It opens the same hours/days as Maghull Library, presently 10 am - 5 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am - 2 pm Saturday.
Please note, we’re NOT open on Sundays and Bank Holidays
Our Heritage Centre, whilst being very much about Frank Hornby and the products of his Meccano Factory, also takes an interest in products that subsequently fell under differing ownerships, particularly following the demise of the Meccano Factory in 1979.
See our FHHC gallery photos under the ‘Products’ tag above
There’s no charge to visit our Heritage Centre but donations can be made via our collection box.
Please see our disability access statement for the FHHC on our ‘Places to visit’ page under the ‘Clubs, Associations & Enthusiasts’ tab above
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Our Memories/Education Box is available to be borrowed via Sefton Council’s Library Service
Please follow the link below (or speak to Maghull [Meadows] Library staff) & search for ‘Educational Box: Frank Hornby’ to start the booking process - Educational Box: Frank Hornby
The Hornby/Meccano items in the box include a clockwork 0 Gauge train & track, 2 built Meccano models & some Dinky Toys.
Explanatory cards box tell users all about Hornby/Meccano so that they can lead a talk in schools, care homes, or to community/local history organisations, etc.
Looking for someone to give a Hornby talk?
If you’d like one of our volunteer trustees to come to give a talk please email Les French at caractorgraphics@yahoo.co.uk
We do ask for a minimum donation of £30 for such talks to cover our costs and to bring some money into our small charitable trust.
Our trustees will usually travel to venues within Merseyside and Lancashire but please feel free to contact us if you are further away to see if we can accommodate your request.
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Donations to our Charitable Trust
Monetary donations go straight into our funds which are used to make appropriate purchases for display at our Maghull Heritage Centre.
We have a donations box in our Maghull Heritage Centre which can also be used to pay for books purchased from our small library of mainly railway related reading.
We often get donations of model railway-related items, model cars, transport-related books, items of Meccano etc. etc. If the items are unrelated to Meccano/Hornby/Dinky Toys/other products of Hornby/Meccano we will usually sell them to help our Trust. If they are Hornby etc. we will put them on display at our Heritage Centre. If we already have an item we’ll keep the best and sell others.
All our funds are used for the benefit of our Trust and we are grateful for all donations.
If you’d like to donate items to our charitable trust please contact Tony Robertson at - t3robertson@gmail.com
Was BAYKO more popular with girls than boys?
We have a display of it at our Maghull Heritage Centre. Meccano manufactured it 1959/64. Prior to that it was made by Plimptons of Liverpool. The number of ladies who’ve told us they played with it has surprised us.
NML Curator Sharon Brown writes about some famous designers, inventors, scientists etc. who were inspired by playing with Meccano as children
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/how-meccano-changed-world
Meccano biplanes and a Concorde ‘flying’ at the Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre