A MAGICAL fairy-like world blooms in Steve Dean and his wife Wendy’s garden with a landscape bursting with miniature cottages.

The decorative houses, all hand-made by Mr Dean, capture the imaginations of adults and children alike and despite being highly decorative they also represent nostalgia for a bygone era.

For many, the buildings will remind them of old Welsh cottages that dotted the rural hillsides, yet for the craftsman, they are symbolic of more poignant memories from his coal mining past.

“From about 10 years-old I used to collect coal off the tip near where the explosion happened in Six Bells and then I ended up working at the colliery where it happened and I never forgot about it,” he said.

“As time goes on you think about different things, and I thought if I can make something and put it on the site where it happened then I would be giving something back to the miners who lost their lives.”

Mr Dean also believes much of his inspiration has been drawn from his memories of roaming around Abertillery as a child.

“When I was delivering papers at eight or nine years old, I used to deliver to cottages around Brynithel and the open cast,” he said.

“I would take papers to about 20 farm houses throughout summer and winter and they were like scenes from a Christmas card.”

Years later, he found himself recreating these images from his youth.

He said: “I have always thought back a little bit and I started building the cottages and thought, this is how it used to be.

"I don’t measure anything or get it perfect because nothing was exactly right back then.”

The retired 67-year-old of Six Bells, has spent the last seven years creating these unique homes and recently decided to display a collection for the public at Cwmtillery Lakes, a place close to the family’s hearts.

His newest creations went on show at the lakes on Thursday afternoon having taken the former coal miner and stone mason nearly seven months to complete.

“Well everybody seemed to like it,” he said.

“I spoke to many people and they said they had never seen anything like it in their lives.”

The couple have competed several times in the Blaenau Gwent in Bloom garden competition and were encouraged by judges who saw the collections to display them for the public.

Mr Dean said: “We decided to display them because when people have come to judge our gardens they have always said they should be displayed somewhere and we never took much notice, but they all said the same thing.

“So we thought this would be a good time to do it and a nice location,” he added.

Despite making the miniatures from oak, stone, and bark as well as reclaimed wood from around the Abertillery colliery he has little to no carpentry experience.

“If I see a piece of wood, I pick it up and take it home and think of how I will use it. I do it all in my backyard, I don’t have many tools either,” he said.

“But I was told my great grandfather was supposed to have been a good carpenter.”

The ex-collier explains how his first attempts were less than perfect, “It was terrible. I’ve still got it and I thought it was tidy at the time. My wife used to say it’s good, but you will get better.”

Equal attention is given to the interior design as well as the exterior, with table and chairs, fireplaces and wooden beams transforming the models into homes.

“It’s half a job if you don’t do the insides,” Mr Dean said.

“Inside you’d swear people are living in there and if you shine a light in them you would think it was an actual home,” he added.

Despite having several villages worth of cottages and a display at the Ebbw Vale Festival Park, Mr Dean has no plans to stop crafting the houses.

He said: “I just keep doing them, it’s meant to be a bit of a hobby but it’s a bit obsessive.

“We’ve got so many here my wife says to me, Steve why don’t you give it a break? And I will for a couple of days and then I’ll start doing it again.”

People from as far afield as the United States and Mexico have admired the unusual designs.

The 67-year-old added: “We have 1,500 likes on Facebook mainly from people abroad, someone even wanted me to send a cottage to Canada.”

However, he insists that he is not in it for the money, “I have sold one or two cottages, one even went up to Hull and she wanted to buy them all,” he said.

“But I don’t want to do it as a business because then you are doing it to make a living and I don’t need to do that.

“I am in the fortunate position where I can make them for fun and I don’t have to worry about whether people like them or not because I make them for my own satisfaction.”

For the foreseeable future, his Welsh Victorian wonderland will remain safe at home with the Dean family.