Frome Model Centre will be celebrating its 20th anniversary tomorrow (Wednesday August 21) by holding a fun day and raising money for charity.

The shop opened on August 21 1999, and to mark two decades since this date, there will be fun and games from 10am to 8pm.

The Catherine Street model centre will be running in-store discounts, have special one day only deals, late night shopping, product demonstrations from some of their top suppliers, adult and children's competitions, food and drink, goody bags and more.

The day will also be a fundraising event for Crohns and Colitis UK. There will be raffle, tombola, boys' and girls' lucky dip with all funds raised going to the Crohns and Colitis UK charity.

Looking back at the early days of Frome Model Centre, proprietor Simon England said: "Although we've been in Frome for 20 years, we started many miles away smack bang in the middle of the country in Northampton.

"The fascination, passion or love for model railways was kindled more than 50 years ago with a Trix Three Rail layout one Christmas, and from then on model railways have been a deep-rooted part of my life.

"In 1986, I booked a table with Barry Potter toy fairs at Market Harborough and the rest, they say, is history.

"For the next several years I attended toy fairs, exhibitions and had regular pitches at Northampton, Milton Keynes, Dunstable and various other town markets, I was out every day including weekends and most evenings.

"We had customers coming to the house, which was filling with stock, so the decision was made to look for a suitable shop and, in 1993, we opened the first one.

"In 1995, a major tragedy in the family started to put a different perspective on things, so in 1998 we made the move to Frome.

"We kept the shop in Northampton but as Frome grew it was taking more than triple of the other shop so the decision was taken to close the Northampton shop down and it was actually one of the best decisions we made.

"We opened Frome on August 21 1999 - the town was holding its annual Medieval Festival.

"I haven't a clue where the last 20 years have gone but we are looking forward to the next 20."