Enjoy our 40-acre site and visit our rescued historic buildings – we have more than 50 to explore from a replica Anglo-Saxon hall house to an Edwardian tin tabernacle church. We currently have three new exhibit buildings under construction: a dairy, bakehous, plus a late 18th century barn and stable.
Visitors can enjoy a regular programme of trade and craft demonstrations, including milling in our 17th century watermill, cooking in our Tudor kitchen, blacksmithing in our Victorian smithy, plus seasonal demonstrations, talks and tours. Take a walk in the woods, bring the dog (we are dog friendly), visit our waterside café or enjoy your own picnic.
The Museum is home to a range of traditional farm animals. Our heavy horses (Shire and Percheron) can be seen hauling carts and helping with haymaking and harvesting, and Sussex oxen have been trained to pull a cart and plough. Woolly-faced Southdown sheep graze the downland turf and, in spring, lambs are folded in traditional sheepfolds. Sussex light hens peck in the straw around the Tudor farmstead and stables, and Embden geese graze in the orchard. Pigs are lent to the Museum seasonally.
Traditional cereal and root crops, hops and flax are grown in the fields and around the Museum. The wheat is threshed at our Autumn Countryside Show using a steam-powered threshing machine – the combed wheat reed is used as thatching straw for some of the Museum’s buildings.
Why not plan your visit to coincide with one of our special events? These include a Food Festival, Christmas Market and Living History Festival.
