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.

***Mamod Stationary Steam Engines***
**Our Heritage Centre has been presented with a beautiful 1950's Mamod stationary steam engine by John Langton of Formby.**
The model is in all but mint condition with its original box, instruction sheet and even the receipt for purchase (by John's Uncle) from Lucas's Hobbies in Liverpool. Thank you John for donating such a great model to our Trust.
**We now have 3 stationary steam engines, which were all made to work with Meccano models, on display as part of our ever growing Hornby/Meccano collection.**

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**]

**1939 Hornby Dublo D2 Set**
**This is a cracking addition to the displays of Hornby items at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre. It dates from 1939 and was recently passed on to us by Mike Howard.**
**The excellent Brighton Toy and Model Museum has some interesting information about this wooden D2 set:-**
**https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/.../Category:Hornby...**
We don't have the full set (which sold for 25/- in 1939) because the arched station canopy part is missing. We do, however, have the separately purchased wooded block signal box (see below), which sold for 11d.
**What a find, thank you so much Mike.**

Recording 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.

**Dublo Breakdown Crane**
**This cracking boxed Hornby Dublo railway breakdown crane set is now on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre.**
**It was donated by Mike Howard of Lydiate, together with a number of additional Dublo items. Thanks Mike, much appreciated.**

***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

*****

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.*
*****

Now on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre

A Coventry Climax forklift truck in good play-worn condition (Dinky No.401) and a beautifully restored Dinky Supertoys Bedford Pallet Jekta van (Dinky No.930).

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

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

Frank Hornby: Inspiring future generations

A journey that started with humble beginnings, tinkering with a toy to entertain & educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician & millionaire.

Mamod Stationary Steam Engines

Mo Kundi has been honoured with an MBE

1939 Hornby Dublo D2 Set

This is a cracking addition to the displays of Hornby items at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre. It dates from 1939 and was recently passed on to us by Mike Howard.

Recording memories of people who worked at Liverpool’s famous Meccano Factory

Dublo Breakdown Crane

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 -

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.

See our FHHC gallery photos under the ‘Products’ tag above

Looking for someone to give a Hornby talk?

Now on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre

A Coventry Climax forklift truck in good play-worn condition (Dinky No.401) and a beautifully restored Dinky Supertoys Bedford Pallet Jekta van (Dinky No.930).

Donations to our Charitable Trust

NML Curator Sharon Brown writes about some famous designers, inventors, scientists etc. who were inspired by playing with Meccano as children

The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust & Frank Hornby Heritage Centre

Follow us

Registered Charity number: 1137345

Frank Hornby: Inspiring future generations

A journey that started with humble beginnings, tinkering with a toy to entertain & educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician & millionaire.

Mamod Stationary Steam Engines

Mo Kundi has been honoured with an MBE

1939 Hornby Dublo D2 Set

This is a cracking addition to the displays of Hornby items at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre. It dates from 1939 and was recently passed on to us by Mike Howard.

Recording memories of people who worked at Liverpool’s famous Meccano Factory

Dublo Breakdown Crane

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 -

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.

See our FHHC gallery photos under the ‘Products’ tag above

Looking for someone to give a Hornby talk?

Now on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage CentreA Coventry Climax forklift truck in good play-worn condition (Dinky No.401) and a beautifully restored Dinky Supertoys Bedford Pallet Jekta van (Dinky No.930).

Donations to our Charitable Trust

NML Curator Sharon Brown writes about some famous designers, inventors, scientists etc. who were inspired by playing with Meccano as children

The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust & Frank Hornby Heritage Centre

Follow us

Registered Charity number: 1137345

Now on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre

A Coventry Climax forklift truck in good play-worn condition (Dinky No.401) and a beautifully restored Dinky Supertoys Bedford Pallet Jekta van (Dinky No.930).