Britains Lead & Floral Garden Sets...

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Written by Celia Thomas of KT Miniatures...

Britains Lead & Floral Garden Sets

I expect there are quite a few of us reading this who, as children, played with either the Britains Lead Garden pieces (if you are of mature years) or the subsequent manufactured plastic Floral Garden Sets (if you are a tad younger). For me, I come under the latter category and it was during the late 1960s that I regularly saved up my pocket money and eagerly purchased small sets from the plastic Floral Garden range.

Britains Lead Garden...

The 1/32 scale Britain’s Lead Garden range was available pre-war from the 1930s through to the 1950s. The range was extensive with painted lead flowers of all description that were inserted into various shaped lead soil bases with holes. Plus there were a wide range of accessories which included moulded painted rockery, fencing, walls, pots, pergola, pond, greenhouse, cold frame, lawnmower etc. Some of the pieces are so rare & costly that it is unlikely that the majority of us would never get to own them and probably the nearest we would get to certain items is by seeing a picture of them in a book. I would love to get my hands on the lead greenhouse but would no doubt have to pay well over £100 if lucky enough to come across one....and if it was boxed then well, the sky’s the limit! The stems or heads on many a flower were unsurprisingly snapped off and of course when this happened, that was basically it...they were never quite the same again. Plus some of the pieces are so tiny that no doubt were easily lost.

To complement the flowers, there were lead crazy paving slabs that came in small squares painted a khaki colour, plus the lawn came in green cork type squares but would give the child plenty of scope to use their imagination with the layout. Some pieces children often used with the garden set came from Britains Farm Set e.g. hens, dog with kennel or even a hissing cat.

My most favourite piece that we do occasionally get hold of, has got to be the opening garden gate with hedge.....probably because that gate has nostalgic memories for me and just is so very 1930s! It looks absolutely fabulous standing in front of a vintage dolls house and just oozes charm!

One word of advice, if you are lucky enough to get hold of these pieces...no matter how badly worn away the paintwork , DON’T ever be tempted to touch up yourself....because if you do, immediately you will have devalued your piece. At auction or on Ebay, be prepared to dig deep in your pockets to purchase these Britains Lead objects. Just occasionally I may come across the odd lead item at a car boot sale or charity shop, but of course even there you will have to pay a nice tidy sum. At KT Miniatures we only ever have a few pieces available at one time. Needless to say if you can get hold of these lead pieces then they will certainly be an investment for the future as like the majority of vintage or antique dolls houses, the value will increase further over time.

Britains Floral Garden

The Britains Plastic Floral Garden succeeded the lead items during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. Although not quite as rare as the earlier lead items, the value of them are beginning to rise and just in the last year or so, KT Miniatures have been finding it increasingly difficult to get hold of these pieces.

Again, like their lead counterparts, the exquisite items available were extensive and although predominately in 1/32 scale many of us would have used it with our old dolls houses of all scales. My minute plastic flower pots complete with cacti would often sit on my childhood dolls house kitchen windowsill. I remember my most fascinating piece was the lawnmower complete with detachable grass box and crazy or what, but have vivid memories as a child (not recently ...honest) mowing my “lawn” religiously up and down to match the neatly striped grass pattern on my synthetically textured lawn; the striped effect being so fashionable for gardeners back then.

The white plastic greenhouse had shelves and I would carefully adorn these with rows of my tiny plant pots ....however the plastic swing catch that held the roof together had an annoying habit of not fitting properly so just one slight knock and the whole construction would fall apart. So I have to say that often the green house would stay in the box. The crazy paving pieces were constructed from printed cardboard rectangles, much larger than their lead equivalent. The plastic hosepipe came complete with a reel which it really did wind around and the other end was attached to a plastic stand pipe and tap.....wonderful! The very ‘60s plastic swing with paper canopy tended to be on the fragile side and fall apart when you swung it too vigorously. There was a white table and chair set, that came with a sun parasol and tray of cups. There were even people figures available but I personally never did get to purchase any in my younger days, as I was more interested in the flowers and other accessories.

Of course there was a huge variety of flowers and plants, but unlike the lead counterparts, you would need to “plant” them into the plastic base with holes using a tool that had a rounded spike on the end (not sure whether this would pass modern health and safety standards of modern times). The pond was fascinating with a green cardboard base, covered in Perspex then a single pond rockery surround, which slotted on top neatly. Both in the Perspex and the rockery there were holes to insert water friendly plants into. The cold frame came with small seedlings, the pergola had climbing roses, there was a dovecote, sundial, shed ....in fact the list is endless. Another drawback I do remember, is that all the flower heads, unlike the lead flowers, were separate to the main stem and could easily come off so inevitably these were easily lost. Looking at my own depleted childhood garden collection that I still have today, I am annoyed with myself at how many flowers and other pieces I must have mislaid tand most probably hoovered up. But I suppose as children, one didn’t seem to think of the consequences.

NB. Handy tip recently passed onto me by a customer.....to reshape a warped plastic greenhouse roof.......hold the piece carefully for a few seconds over the steam of a boiling kettle (being careful not to scald your hand obviously) then manipulate gently back into shape. Needless to say I have not tried this myself yet but if the situation arises, I think I will give it a go!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and seeing some of the pictures...whether it has brought back memories from you own childhood or maybe inspired you to start a collection of the garden sets yourself, it is certainly a fact that the Britains Lead Garden Sets and the plastic Britains Floral Garden Sets will continue to thrill and fascinate future generations.

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