I seem to have been having quite a few days out just lately, but I think this is the last for a while!
I think most of you know that this open air Museum is where The Repair Shop is filmed, and they were actually filming an outdoor sequence while we were there. We were able to watch - at a distance!
The Museum occupies a 40 acre site in Singleton, just north of Chichester and has over 50 historic buildings. The earliest one is dated from 950AD! All the buildings have been offered to or rescued by the Museum and are local to Sussex and the immediate vicinity. The Museum found that when they were offered buildings for the site, they often contained artefacts as well, so all these artefacts have been catalogued and are stored in a special building, and we were lucky enough to have a talk from the Museum Curator and a chance to browse round the collection. We all commented on how large, heavy and cumbersome everything was - definitely built to last, but the people using them must have been incredibly strong.
The buildings were varied and interesting, from a bakehouse to a brick drying shed, and a rather frightening saw pit! The watermill produces wholemeal flour, but to get it useable the Museum had to build a mill pond at a higher level, allowing the water to cascade down to turn the mill wheel, but then the water has to be pumped back to the pond as there is no natural water source on the site. It was interesting to see some of the houses, and those of us who went round the Backs in Birmingham would recognise some of these from a similar era.
Everything on the site is local and as much in the same condition as when they were acquired as is safe. Some had obviously had some 'renovation' to ensure they were safe!
There was a lovely cafe where we had breakfast (after an early start) and lunch. We didn't see even half of the buildings, so I'd definitely like to go back as see more. We were lucky that it was a fine day as there is quite a bit of walking to get from one building to another.
I had the same thoughts as when we visited the Backs - how lucky we are to have comfortable homes and modern conveniences that were unheard of even 100 years ago!
I think most of you know that this open air Museum is where The Repair Shop is filmed, and they were actually filming an outdoor sequence while we were there. We were able to watch - at a distance!
The Museum occupies a 40 acre site in Singleton, just north of Chichester and has over 50 historic buildings. The earliest one is dated from 950AD! All the buildings have been offered to or rescued by the Museum and are local to Sussex and the immediate vicinity. The Museum found that when they were offered buildings for the site, they often contained artefacts as well, so all these artefacts have been catalogued and are stored in a special building, and we were lucky enough to have a talk from the Museum Curator and a chance to browse round the collection. We all commented on how large, heavy and cumbersome everything was - definitely built to last, but the people using them must have been incredibly strong.
The buildings were varied and interesting, from a bakehouse to a brick drying shed, and a rather frightening saw pit! The watermill produces wholemeal flour, but to get it useable the Museum had to build a mill pond at a higher level, allowing the water to cascade down to turn the mill wheel, but then the water has to be pumped back to the pond as there is no natural water source on the site. It was interesting to see some of the houses, and those of us who went round the Backs in Birmingham would recognise some of these from a similar era.
Everything on the site is local and as much in the same condition as when they were acquired as is safe. Some had obviously had some 'renovation' to ensure they were safe!
There was a lovely cafe where we had breakfast (after an early start) and lunch. We didn't see even half of the buildings, so I'd definitely like to go back as see more. We were lucky that it was a fine day as there is quite a bit of walking to get from one building to another.
I had the same thoughts as when we visited the Backs - how lucky we are to have comfortable homes and modern conveniences that were unheard of even 100 years ago!
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