THIS week 39 years ago the Adver ran one of a long series of articles about a family of Swindon modellers.

The Scutts household in Nelson Street had first come to our attention in 1967 courtesy of Joe Scutts, a refuse collector with a remarkable artistic talent.

In that article we revealed that he’d built a scale model of an entire old-style fair.

We said: “He has been at work on his project ‘on and off’ since 1960, and reckons he has put five year’s leisure time into it.

“Now it has seven large ‘rides,’ more than 20 side-shows, four caravans, seven lorries and three showman’s traction engines.

“No part of his models was shop-bought. Mr Scutts uses only odd bits and pieces most people would think were rubbish.

“Tin cans, ice lolly sticks and artificial grapes were all pressed into service.

“The merry-go-round and the ‘octopus’ are mounted on old wind-up gramophone turntables, and the other ‘rides’ are powered by small battery engines.”

Mr Scutts told us: “I love fairs. It’s in my blood. My father used to work with travelling fairs. Now we travel miles to visit them.

“I don’t care if I’ve got no money to spend as long as I can just stand there, getting ideas for my models.”

Over the next few years we ran occasional stories about the fairground being displayed at steam rallies and similar gatherings, but the focus for a piece in late April of 1977 was different.

We said: “You could call Mrs Sadie Scutts, 35, her husband Joe and Kay, their 16-year-old daughter, a model family.

“The miniature fairground rides, horses, gypsy caravans and wooden dolls they carve and mould during winter evenings at their home in Nelson Street, Swindon, are earning them a big reputation.

“During the coming months they’ll be exhibiting them at shows and steam fairs in places as far apart as Blandford in Dorset and Ross-on-Wye.

“And housewife Sadie is hoping her award-winning excesses of last year will be multiplied several times over this summer.

“For she’s a perfectionist. During the last three years she has built a gypsy encampment and a larger Romany caravan which are authentic down to the last cooking pot and brass ornament.”

Sadie revealed that her husband had inspired her: “I said to him one day, ‘I’m sure I could do something like that. I’ll have to try.’

“Now it’s the rivalry between us that keeps the standard high.”

The final report in our archives is from 1984, when Mr Scutts was gearing up for a model fair at Ashton Keynes House.