A third of the Laredo Western Town near Longfield was destroyed in the blaze but the owner says people’s kindness has inspired them to carry on

There’s an American wild west town in the middle of the Kent countryside and it’s something that seems to have passed many of us by.

Rumour has it, even some locals in the area don’t know it’s there.

It’s impressive, too, raising the question as to how this incredible place has escaped us.

First founded in 1971 by western enthusiast John Truder and a group of like-minded friends, Laredo has over the years become an exact replica of a wild west town as it would have been in 1865 to 1889.

And there’s been no cutting corners, with the Truder family, helped by enthusiasts and re-enactors over the past 40 years, creating something astonishingly authentic.

There are - or were - 24 buildings, including a two-storey hotel with full-size saloon bar and six guest rooms.

There’s a Marshalls office, working blacksmiths, gunsmith, general store, undertaker, bank, tobacconist and so on.

Inside, the buildings are fully furnished and accurately decorated to the period, with lighting by oil lamps and wood burning stoves for cooking and heating.

Laredo Western Town (FB: Laredo Western Town), which is now run by the late Mr Truder’s daughter Jolene, is one of a kind in the UK. There is nothing else quite like it.

But, perhaps a bit like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, not just anyone can enter, with the town for members and guests only.

There are also film crews who use it to shoot movies, trailers - such as for Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp - or music videos including Elbow’s Grounds for Divorce.

But Laredo is primarily for its members, those who helped create what is there today by being allocated certain buildings and transforming them into something from the American west.

During the regular events and meets, cowboys, gunslingers, townspeople and marshalls can be seen reenacting what life was like in a western town.

There’s been gun fights, bank robberies as well as normal everyday life on the American frontier.

Jolene says it is a special place, which made it all the more heartbreaking when a fire tore through it back in November.

Fire crews spent 12 hours bringing the blaze under control, even draining a nearby swimming pool to help extinguish the flames.

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” says Jolene. “A third of it was destroyed. We lost so much - the mining camp, the butchers, the livery.

“What’s really upsetting is that in the livery was a stagecoach which was donated to us by another club. The man that ran that was good friends with my dad, so the stagecoach was very sentimental.

“We also lost two wagons. You can’t just replace these things.”

But Jolene says despite the devastation, the kindness of neighbours and even strangers, donating wood, their time and money, has inspired the family to keep going on with the rebuild.

A fundraiser was set up by a member of the public, Giles Harry, which has raised more than £15,000 to help fund it.

Members due to come to a thanksgiving event just days after the fire also still came and helped clear the whole burned site.

Jolene says she has been overwhelmed by people’s kindness since the blaze, which was believed to be caused by a log burner in one of the buildings.

“I’m using what’s happened as a rebirth,” she said. “I’m going to change it, I’m going to put a new generation’s stamp on it.

“We’ll still have the buildings that were lost but instead of having it like we did before, with the road blocked off, we want to have the street in a horseshoe shape with the corral in the middle.”

A water tower is going to be built by a Swedish re-enactor and Jolene says she will bring in new safety measures for the new and existing buildings.

“People’s kindness has given us the hope and inspiration to carry on, re-evaluate and rebuild this town,” she added.

To see the fundraiser click here.