A FURNESS builder, who set about proving bigger does not necessarily mean better by constructing an entire miniature village, is set to appear on our television screens.

Edward Robinson, of Winder Lane, Flookburgh, began building diminutive houses more than eight years ago when the recession robbed him of his business and health.

"I was outside talking to some builders one day and I just put three or four small stones together and I said 'I'm going to have a go at building a house'.

It just carried on from there," he said.

Today his collection, known as the Lakeland Miniature Village, boasts a huge range of architectural styles from stone-built Lakeland cottages to fairy tale Tudor creations and Mr Robinson has lost track of the number he has built.

Word spread about the growing collection of houses, bringing visitors of all ages and nationalities to the miniature estate, and the collection will be broadcast on Channel 4's Collectors' Lot on January 22 at 3pm.

Mr Robinson said: "Collector's Lot heard about the houses through their camera man, who lives in Ambleside.

They contacted me in 1999 and, last year, they recorded a voice-over piece and filmed me up in the Lake District taking sketches of buildings.

They also took some film of the miniature village."

Mr Robinson, whose largest house is around 6ft by 6ft, has even built houses so small that they fit on a 12-inch tile.

His most recent projects include a miniature inspired by Cark Hall and, with the help of an old picture postcard, a tiny reconstruction of the house which used to be situated at Humphrey Head.

Mr Robinson still loves having visitors come to see his work.

"It can get a bit miserable in the winter but when the weather picks up and the visitors come I love it and so does my wife.

Some of the children that visit want to live here, and I've even had big burley police men asking for commissions."