IN a basement beneath an old shop in the town centre, a secret world has been quietly taking shape.

Over the last ten years the miniature land of Notlobia has grown from a small model railway layout to an intricate diorama, lovingly handcrafted and rich in humorous detail.

Above, shop owner Les Cliff has gone about running his Framearound picture framers shop in Bank Street, with only a handful of customers aware of the tiny world emerging beneath their feet.

“Only about 40 or 50 people have seen it. When people come downstairs they’re gobsmacked,” said Les from Heathfield, Harwood.

A trainset for his 50th birthday rekindled Les’ passion for model making and some bad news a few years ago gave the married father-of-two fresh impetus to complete the masterpiece.

“One of the kick starts was that I thought I had bowl cancer,” explained Les. “It turned out I didn’t have bowel cancer, but I did have leukaemia.

“It’s a manageable one and I’m trying to be positive about it. But I thought I’d got so far with the layout that I should get to the stage where I could say it’s about as finished as it’s going to be.”

Les, 60, originally caught the model making bug aged six along with his cousins growing up in Swadlincote, Derbyshire – starting with Lone Star and Hornby sets and being chastised by parents for pinching tea leaves and sugar from the kitchen to create snow-covered foliage for scenery.

Les now estimates he’s more than half way to Notlobia’s completion, and decided to unveil his masterpiece to a wider audience after hearing about the Market Place’s plans to open a ride-on miniature railway in the Vaults.

It takes around a minute and a half for a train to make its way through Notlobia’s sprawling rail network, which includes stops at the bustling Lancashire town of ‘Notlob’ (‘Bolton’ backwards) and the rural, Harwood -inspired ‘Woodhar’.

Along the way, trains weave in and out of scenery incorporating elements of Luxembourg, Switzerland, Scotland, Wales and rural England from the period 1940 to 1990.

Or, as Les, humorously puts it, a ‘microcosm of juxtapositions of anachronistic transport modes’ from across the decades.

In one corner, the layout climbs into an alpine scene surrounded by a pine forest made from offcuts of a Wilkinson’s artificial Christmas tree, over which a moving cable car will soon be suspended.

Built on old tables and trestle, a series of crawl spaces allow Les to access different parts of the creation.

Above, trains pass over viaducts, through tunnels and cuttings, countryside and townscapes where each square inch tells a story - from marathon runners struggling through their own Ironman to a party of wedding guests outside a church.

Elsewhere you might spot gardeners tending allotments, scaffolders having a brew and even Del Boy’s Robin Reliant.

In one section a fisherman struggles with the one that got away thanks to a nearby aeroplane crash – an accidently crushed air fix kit inventively re-used with some cotton-wool to create the smoke plume.

Graffiti including ‘Pay no poll tax’, ‘City Stink’ and ‘Wanderers go home’ (Les is a Derby County fan) cling to the side of terraces and cotton mills.

There are canals, a port, a mine and a circus. And beneath Notlob’s Devil’s Bridge, named after the real-world A666, you might even find a rather large house spider – occasionally flushed out by passing express trains, explains Les.

Having studied fine art, many of his intricate models are scratch built. This has allowed him to keep the entire cost of the model down to around £1,000, and he gets many of his locos and rolling stock second hand from friends at the East Lancashire Railway’s model shop in Bury.

But the hours he spent on it have certainly added up – Les estimates he’s spent thousands on the layout, crafting chicken wire, recycled ceiling tiles, corrugated board and Modroc plaster of Paris into hills, valleys, rivers and streams.

His wife, Joanna, two daughters, Jennifer and Alison, and Jennifer’s two granddaughter Suzanna, three and Lottie, eight months, love the layout.

And Les has hopes of sharing it with the wider Bolton public. Access logistics and health and safety permitting, Les hopes to invite people down in exchange for a voluntary charity donation.

Les plans to keep working at Framearound for many years to come. But should retirement arrive early – one thing’s for sure.

“I’ve said that when I sell the business I’m not selling the basement,” said Les.