Your LEGO can help expert make history (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Appeal for LEGO for Basing House replica

10:00am Monday 6th February 2012 in News By Emily Roberts

UNWANTED LEGO is needed for an ambitious project to help build a replica of Basing House using 150,000 blocks.

LEGO expert Duncan Titmarsh will build scaled-down versions of four parts of the historic house up to two-metre high at Milestones museum at Basingstoke Leisure Park between Tuesday, February 21, and Saturday, March 31.

Milestones staff are now hoping that local people will donate their unwanted LEGO or DUPLO bricks to the project to be used during the LEGO Mania event.

Donations of LEGO are being accepted from now until March 31 at Milestones, Basingstoke Discovery Centre in Festival Place and The Willis Museum, at The Top of the Town.

Once completed, the replica models will be moved to Basing House as a semi-permanent installation in the Great Barn.

Bright Bricks, which helped to build a house made out of LEGO with TV presenter James May in 2009, is behind the project.

Director Ed Diment said: “We will be building a model of how the house looked in its heyday during the Tudor period, and will be creating all the parts of the house and grounds on four huge dioramas.

“We are very excited about this project which combines history, architecture and LEGO engineering all into a live build event of a type that has never been seen before.”

During LEGO Mania, there will be LEGO play tables at the museum, LEGO workshops, competitions and other themed events.

The project is being funded thanks to a £13,000 grant from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Renaissance programme, which seeks to increase interest in museums.

It also has the support of Hampshire County Council, which runs milestones and Basing House.

For more information, visit milestones-museum.com or call 0845 603 5635.