Collection: Chiltern Open Air Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  On 11^th June 1973, it was suggested that the Chiltern Society should consider starting an open air museum of historic buildings in order to preserve them for future generations. The aims of the Museum would be educational as well as recreational. It would, the Society hoped, foster public interest in the architectural heritage of the Chiltern Hills so that people would come to recognise the importance of the buildings and become aware of the need to protect others like them in the future. Buildings selected for inclusion in the Museum would be typical of the domestic, agricultural and industrial structures found in the area, dating back to the earliest known, and would be used to demonstrate methods and materials through the ages, as well as housing exhibits of agricultural implements, domestic equipment, furniture, and local crafts.

  The Chiltern Open Air Museum was established in 1976, with collection of historic Chiltern vernacular buildings beginning soon afterwards. The birth of the Museum coincided with a boom in housing and town centre development, at a time when planning regulations were far looser than they are today with the consequence of destruction of many significant vernacular buildings. The acquisition of buildings for the collection has always been driven by the rescue and preservation of buildings under threat of demolition.

  The collection area of the historic buildings covers the Chiltern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire; extending northwards into Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire as well as eastwards into London. The collecting area of the objects takes into account the collecting policies of other local accredited museums: Weald and Downland Living Museum at Singleton, Avoncroft Museum at Bromsgrove, and the Museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2021

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Historic Buildings Collection

  The Museum has thirty-seven historic buildings erected on site and a further fifteen in store. The collection on display currently range from a reconstructed iron age house to a post second world war Prefab and includes cottages from different periods, as well as a Victorian Mission Room and Victorian working farm and rural industrial buildings. The stored collection includes a medieval tithe barn, shop and houses, a bake oven, timber framed buildings, a saddlery and some pigsties.

  The aim has been to represent as many different types of vernacular buildings from the region as possible.

  The Object Collection

  The Museum’s collection consists of some 5000 objects.

  These fall into four main categories:

  Agricultural collection — machinery, transport, tools, and implements.

  Light industrial craft collection.

  Social history — mainly domestic items used for dressing and interpreting the buildings.

  Architectural components

  The largest single collection is the Stuart King Collection of Chesham Woodware, representing approximately 1500 items.

  The Archives

  There is a fully indexed drawings collection of some 250 plans, sections and elevations relating to the history and provenance of the buildings in the collection, their transportation to the Museum, reconstruction and maintenance.

  In addition, the Museum holds a photographic collection of 1000 items and a slide collection of 2000 items, relating to the development and history of the Museum from its foundation.

  The Library

  A retired Chartered Librarian established the Museum Library in 1993. It contains a variety of material (books, reports, theses and miscellaneous items relating to the collections and the region) and is classified using the Dewey Classification System for around 2000 books. The Library does not form part of the formal collection unless there are specific and significant books that have been identified and accessioned.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2021

  Licence: CC BY-NC