A team of model makers has created a miniature winter wonderland to showcase plans for a model village more than two acres in size.

The team at the Lydney Park Estate in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, has spent six months crafting the Christmas scene inside a giant greenhouse.

It has taken model makers, theatrical designers, artists and sculptors six months to build the attraction, which is 3,000 square feet in size and cost �25,000.

The scene, which depicts Santa's elves on the night before Christmas, features scale models of local landmarks, and is populated by 250 hand-crafted six-inch figures.

Scale models

Project leader Dave Thornton said the attraction is the curtain raiser for a much bigger miniature village.

He and his team have applied for planning permission to convert Viscount Bledisloe's former Pleasure Gardens in Lydney Park, into a two-and-a-half acre family tourist destination.

Mr Thornton said: "The aim is to promote the Forest of Dean, it's culture and places of interest, while providing an entertaining and relaxing hour or so for visitors.

"It will feature locally made detailed models in a magical woodland garden setting."

The miniature village will feature market squares, woodland trails, a tea garden, farm paddocks with animals and a miniature boating lake.

If planning permission is granted, the attraction could open by June 2003.

"People have a fascination with things in miniature - children in particular find it quite empowering," he said.