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.
A Frank Hornby ‘150’ sew-on badge from 2013
A look back to 2017 when the filming of a Michael Portillo Great British Railway Journey’s TV programme took place in Maghull at our Heritage Centre
Dinky Toys Goods Train Set
Our ‘Bible’ of everything Hornby
Our Heritage Centre relies on this to check out all kinds of facts about Frank Hornby & his world famous Meccano Factory. Written/published by Jim Gamble in the early 2000’s it’s no long in print. Libraries & 2nd hand copies are the best source if you’re looking for one. Well worth reading indeed.
Hornby Dublo L.M.R 2-8-0 8F Steam Loco & Tender No.48073. The real loco was at one time allocated to Kirkby-In-Ashfield Shed (16C/B/E), Notts. Here’s a link to a rather brilliant website about Kirkby’s railways & shed - https://kirkbysteam.co.uk
A Meccano Motor Car Constructor Outfit No.2 from @1933 and on display at our Heritage Centre
Recording memories of Meccano Factory workers
We’ve recorded 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.
A National Museums Liverpool 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 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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Not all they seem - 3 Dinky Raleigh Cycles vans
Only the dark green Austin A40 van (middle) is as it would have left the Meccano factory. The others, as with the ‘real’ one, are refurbishments from very battered models. Clearly, someone who’s a fan of Raleigh Cycles liveried the light blue and lighter green models for Raleigh.
The dark green correctly liveried Austin A40 is on display at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre.
Hornby O Gauge trucks & coaches
Just some of our O Gauge collection displayed at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
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.