Weald & Downland Museum - A Visit
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Last Saturday Sue (my wife), my friend Neil and I decided to visit the Weald & Downland Living Museum in Singleton Near Chichester in West Sussex. When I run courses there it is difficult to get out and see what’s going on at the museum so I took the chance to look around for once. There have been a lot of changes there, including the new shop and restaurant by the side of the lake. Being mostly glass there are some lovely views across the lake to the “village”. Visitors can use the restaurant and visit the shop without payment and, of course, anything you purchase helps towards maintaining the museum.
Over the years there have been many new buildings rescued and rebuilt in the exact way they were dismantled and many have been furnished in the style of the time. Victorian houses with Victorian furniture for example. We went into the Elizabethan manor house and were offered samples of bread baked of that period, with a vegetable topping of the time, which were both delicious. The two volunteers were pleased to explain to us about how the bread was made and cooked and what they told us was very interesting and educational with the added advantage of being able to eat what we were being told about!
At the end of our visit we went to Tyndall’s Cottage that had been worked upon in the Gridshell Building when we had been teaching there. There were a couple of volunteers in thecottage sitting and letting the fire die down before they left when the museum closed and so we spent a while chatting with them in the warm and cosy atmosphere of this old cottage.
The work carried out at the Weald & Downland Living Museum is very special and I would like to recommend to all my Trug friends, if you are visiting Sussex take a day to visit the museum – you will definitely not be disappointed! We had a wonderful time looking around all the houses, workshops and medieval shops rebuilt there to form a loose village, including the blacksmithy, the brickworks and the working water mill from which you can buy stone ground flour.
There are so many other things there to see such as old farm carts and you can book all sorts of course from horse and cart driving, cooking through the ages, and all sorts of craft from days gone by. Brilliant!
Photo is of one of our Trug Making Appreciation courses at the Museum
