Collection: Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Agriculture

  The collections of hand tools and machinery associated with fruit and vegetable growing are unusual and include a horse drawn celery roll from the Fens, and various small hand tools associated with celery growing. There is also a light wooden cart from a fruit grower and a variety of apple picking equipment. The museum holds two wooden ploughs, which are unusual in both having wooden mould boards. One of the ploughs, which unfortunately has had its beam cut through, was found in the church tower at Bassingbourn, has a single handle and an unusually large mould board. The machinery includes tractors, ploughs, barn machinery such as root choppers and chaff cutters, seed drills and rolls, sugar beet and potato lifting implements and harvesting machinery. It is mainly horse drawn and pre-1960, but will some tractor drawn implements. Much of the machinery is locally made; other well-known manufacturers, such as Ransomes, are represented. The museum has a collection of original and copy photographs of farming, rural activities and village life, mainly 20th century.

  Local and Social History

  The museum’s social history collection includes material relating to domestic life, village shops and post offices, local trades and crafts, schooling and childhood. The Fenman’s Hut display shows the equipment and clothing used by a fenman in wildfowling and fishing and reflects a very distinctive cultural tradition. The museum has a very small collection of rural costume, mainly items such as farm boots and sun bonnets. The museum has a useful collection of printed ephemera such as trade catalogues, advertisements and trade bills.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC