WARGRAVE Local History Society visited the Rural Life Museum at Tilford (just south of Farnham) in Surrey
It was set up by Henry and Madge Jackson on realising that objects, once a familiar part of everyday country life, were going out of use and being thrown away.
They began collecting examples from across the area, and in 1973 opened what, was then the Old Kiln Museum, to visitors.
A charitable trust provide for the museum’s future, and when Henry died in 2004, he bequeathed the property and his collection to the trust.
At the museum people can see many farming implements, buildings, and tools associated with the crafts and trades of a rural community.
A ‘pre-fab’ (pre-fabricated) building erected just after World War Two is set with a vegetable garden, typical of the period, and a garden shed built from an old air-raid shelter.
Other items include an Anderson (air-raid) shelter, a gypsy caravan, a shepherd’s hut, and a living van that could be towed by a traction engine for use as temporary accommodation at a work site.
Buildings transported and rebuilt at the museum are a Non-Conformist chapel containing a harmonium to accompany the singing at services from the village of Eashing near Godalming, a village hall that formerly stood at Lindford in east Hampshire, a cricket pavilion from Godalming, and from nearby Bourne, a schoolroom that educated local children.
This corrugated iron clad timber framed building was built in 1902, and houses a high teacher’s desk, traditional pupil’s desks with ink-wells, and a long laboratory bench complete with a Bunsen burner and sinks for science classes.
A granary building on stone supports to keep vermin away from the grain, and examples of the machinery used to convert the grain into flour, both illustrate aspects of the historic farming industry.
And a cobbler’s shop, carpenter’s shop, wheelwright and blacksmith’s workshops can also be seen, along with a typical rural wood yard equipped with period machinery.
Before mechanised transport, goods were delivered by horse drawn waggons and carts, and many examples of these are housed at the museum.
There is also a narrow gauge railway line around the museum grounds, and some heritage vehicles, including a 1932 single deck bus, a small 1933 coach, and two vintage fire engines.
Members of the society ended their visit to the museum with afternoon tea.
The group meets at the Old Pavilion, Recreation Ground, Wargrave, on the second Tuesday of the month, at 8pm.
The next event will take place there on Tuesday, September 9, when Sally Hughes will speak about the Mill at Sonning, which was an operational flour mill until 1969, and which was transformed by her parents into a theatre in 1982.
For information, visit: wargravehistory.org.uk and rural-life.org.uk
