Losing my marbles.
While waiting for our car to go through its annual MOT (a Ministry of Transport test for safety), I wandered over to a local tourist attraction, the House of Marbles.
In truth, there wasn’t much choice. The garage is outside the small town of Bovey Tracey and the House of Marbles is pretty much the only thing nearby. But I enjoyed my visit. We used to take the kids there when they were little, and they always had fun watching the marble runs, waiting patiently for their turn to press the button and start the contraptions rolling.
The pictures provide a bit of local colour, and I hope you enjoy them.
The shop sells the handblown glass creations made on site.
More handmade glass creations.
In the museum of games, this huge device is an old machine for making… guess what. Marbles.
In the museum, they have a bagatelle which is very like one I played with as a child. Who needs a Playstation!
Two marble runs. Fascinating to watch the ingenious ways their creator has found to make marbles roll, swing, jump and collide.
Another marble run.
A larger marble run, and my favourite.
There’s a gift shop, of course.
A fine collection of marbles for sale.
Apologies for the blurry photo. This shows the glassworkers busily making all kinds of creations.
Comments are always welcome.
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I love these pictures. I have taken glass blowing lessons and enjoy doing it. I also did a class on lamp work and it was hard. I don’t have the coordination for that. I would love to visit this location but as I don’t know that I will make it there, it was nice to visit through your pictures.
Thank you. The skilled workers make it look easy, but I’m sure it isn’t. It’s amazing what people can make with heat, a few tools and their own breath.
Those marbles look good enough to eat.
Yes, they have a sign warning people not to try!
This is interesting,
I make stuff out of glass but mine is fused rather than blown. I tried my hand at lampwork but, having used a tank of gas and quite a few glass rods, have not yet made anything I could let anyone see – I may have he odd marble though.
Thanks for posting this pic. I must visit this site next time we tavel south.
Thank you. I’d love to try working with glass, but I think it’s one of those things that is much harder than it looks.