A miniature world can be found hidden inside a one-bedroom flat in Birmingham. For decades, Ken Bonham, a retired teacher, has made memory boxes of places he has visited with his dressmaker wife of 54 years, Maggie, each made up of items they have collected on their travels or Bonham has made.
Models of barns, castles and churches are also crammed into the property – made from cork, balsa wood, styrofoam – or 3D card elevations from Bonham’s photos. Each Christmas, Bonham delights his neighbours by crafting nativity scenes from items he has collected and crafted.
Celebrating architecture, geography, history of art with a touch of satire, Bonham’s creations are in part inspired by his years teaching integrated studies to schoolchildren.
“It’s the story of my life,” Bonham said, of the collection of dioramas that fills the couple’s home. “There’s card models that I make from my photographs, which I’ve written a book about, and then there’s my model barns, and the life boxes and the memory boxes that I make of our travels.”
Ken Bonham, a retired teacher, surrounded by his memory boxes. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Explaining how he started making the memory boxes, Bonham said: “When it was my wife’s 60th birthday I asked her if she’d like a diamond ring and she said she’d sooner go to Italy. So we went to Italy and fell in love with Rome and all things Italia. So when I came back I made a display of them.
“Now, we’ll go on holiday, collect postcards, tickets to museums, miniatures of various things, figures and things that are, I don’t like the word, but iconic. And then, when I get home I arrange them all in a order of some sort and then make a box. Some of them will hang on the wall, some of them are freestanding on a shelf.
“I’ve done one of our visits to Paris and another one of our train trip down through the south of France when we went to Avignon.
Ken Bonham with his wife, Maggie. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
‘The Irish trip has got Celtic crosses, card models that I made from my photographs of some of the Celtic monasteries, some model stones of the Celtic stones, a small souvenir of Georgian doorways in Dublin, a model of Trinity College Dublin and a mini bottle of Guinness.
“The British box has got my model toy soldiers from when I was a kid, some of my toy cars, sand from various beaches, England’s Glory matchboxes, a telephone box and a London transport bus, a lighthouse, a Royal Lifeboat man and various animals – and the whole thing hangs on the wall and it’s 4ft high and 3ft wide.
“And then on another Italian trip, we went to Naples, which is where the Nativity scenes started.”
A 3D model of a nativity scene made by Ken for the foyer of the block of flats where he lives. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Ken, a lifelong modelmaker, traces his interest back to childhood, when his grandfather “used to come and have Friday tea – and always bought me a bag of wood offcuts and half a pound of mixed nails”. His father was “a metal polisher at Daimler … so I sort of inherited the gene”, he adds.
Now 79, Bonham’s creations and outlook on life have built a loyal following on Facebook. “I’m not interested in arguing politics,” he said. “I’m not interested in criticising other people’s photographs. I do get a lot of likes.”
