Kent Life (formerly the Museum of Kent Life) is an English open-air museum located at Sandling near Maidstone, next to Allington Locks on the east bank of the River Medway.
Kent Life (formerly the Museum of Kent Life) is an English open-air museum located at Sandling near Maidstone, next to Allington Locks on the east bank of the River Medway.
Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake bequeathed the Cobtree Manor Estate to Maidstone Borough Council in 1966. A part of the estate was Sandling Farm, on the banks of the Medway. In 1984 a decision was made to restore the derelict farm as part of a rural life museum. The museum opened to the public on July 6, 1985. [1] [2]
At the museum, various aspects of farming are recreated. There are two small hop gardens, growing Fuggles and Goldings hops. Apple and plum orchards, a herb garden, a soft fruit garden and various livestock.
The museum has a variety of buildings, most of which have been dismantled and re-erected at the museum.
A five bay barn dating from the eighteenth century and originally at Vale Farm, Calcott, near Sturry. The barn has an oak frame and a thatched roof. It was dismantled in 1984 and re-erected at the museum in 1989. [3]
The chapel is a timber-framed building clad in corrugated iron (a tin tabernacle). It was originally built in 1897 in Cuxton and was donated to the museum in 2000 when a new chapel was built. [4]
Originally called Old Cottage and Water Street Cottage, these cottages stood at Lenham. The Grade II listed building were threatened by the building of the Channel Tunnel rail link. The builder of the link offered the cottages to the museum, along with the funding for their removal and re-erection. They were dismantled in June 1999, and re-erected between January 2000 and March 2001, opening to the public in July 2001. [5]
A late-eighteenth-century farmhouse. [6] [7] Petts Farmhouse is a Grade II* listed building. [8]
Sandling farmhouse is one of the original farm buildings. It was the home of George Brundle, the last tenant of the farm until his death at 98 in 2001. The building dates to the sixteenth century, and has links to Sir Thomas Wyatt. [9]
A blacksmith's forge has been recreated at the museum. [10]
A nineteenth-century granary from Boxley Grange Farm, Boxley, was dismantled in March 1993 and has been re-erected at the museum. [11]
A set of Hopper huts from North Frith Farm, Hadlow was dismantled and re-erected at the museum. These huts are built of brick, with internal fireplaces. [12] A set of hopper huts with a wood frame clad in corrugated iron has been constructed, along with a cookhouse and privy.
One of the original farm buildings. The oast originally had four kilns, two round and two square. Hops had last been dried here some time before 1925. The two square kilns were demolished in 1935 and the stowage was damaged in a fire in 1951. The oast was restored in 1984, both round kilns and one square kiln being restored with cowls. The oast houses a reconstruction of a village store, being the interior fittings of a general store in Hawkhurst. [1] [13]
A shepherd's hut from Acton Farm, Charing was presented to the museum in 1994. [14]
The tearooms are housed in one of the original farm houses. [16]
Of similar construction to the chapel. The old village hall from Ulcombe was donated to the museum in 1997. It was dismantled in October 1997 and re-erected, opening to the public in June 2000. [17]
The wagon store building was purpose built at the museum in 1993. The re-created forge is at one end. [18]
Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river carried much of the town's trade as the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, which is known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of settlement in the area dating back before the Stone Age. The town, part of the borough of Maidstone, had an approximate population of 100,000 in 2019. Since World War II, the town's economy has shifted from heavy industry towards light industry and services.
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles (113 km). About 13 miles (21 km) of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.
An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many redundant oasts have been converted into houses. The names oast and oast house are used interchangeably in Kent and Sussex. In Surrey, Hampshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire they are called hop kilns.
Hadlow is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone.
Boxley is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England.
Lenham is a market village and civil parish in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, 9 miles (14 km) east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses, a couple of restaurants, and a tea-room. Lenham has a population of 3,370 according to the 2011 Census.
The Weald and Downland Living Museum is an open-air museum in Singleton, West Sussex. The museum is a registered charity.
Newnham is a village and civil parish in the Syndale valley in Kent, England, in the administrative borough of Swale near the medieval market town of Faversham.
Cuxton is a village in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It lies on the left bank of the River Medway in the North Downs. It is served by the A228, and Cuxton railway station on the Medway Valley Line between Strood and Maidstone. A low valley leads up from the river to the hamlet of Lower Bush.
Ulcombe is a village near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book and is thought to derive from 'Owl-coomb': 'coomb' meaning 'a deep little wooded valley; a hollow in a hill side' in Old English. The original deserted Medieval village site lies to the east of the parish church in a valley. There is also a water-mill below this site, probably of early origins. It stands below the Greensand Way.
Chainhurst is a wealden village in Kent, England, and is part of Marden civil parish and Maidstone District. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Marden, below Bidborough Ridge, and south of the River Beult floodplain.
The River Bourne rises in the parish of Ightham, Kent and flows in a generally south easterly direction through the parishes of Borough Green, Platt, Plaxtol, West Peckham, Hadlow, and East Peckham where it joins the River Medway. In the 18th century the river was known as the Busty or Buster, the Shode or Sheet, but is not known by these names nowadays. A bourne is a type of stream, while shode means a branch of a river.
A hopper hut was a form of temporary accommodation provided for hop-pickers on English farms in the 19th and 20th centuries.
A cowl is a device used on a kiln to keep the weather out of and to induce a flow of air through the kiln. They are normally associated with oasts but can also be found on breweries, maltings and watermills.
Sandling is a hamlet to the north of the town of Maidstone, Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It falls within the parish of Boxley.
The Medway and its tributaries and sub-tributaries have been used for over 1,150 years as a source of power. There are over two hundred sites where the use of water power is known. These uses included corn milling, fulling, paper making, iron smelting, pumping water, making gunpowder, vegetable oil extraction, and electricity generation. Today, there is just one watermill working for trade. Those that remain have mostly been converted. Such conversions include a garage, dwellings, restaurants, museums and a wedding venue. Some watermills are mere derelict shells, lower walls or lesser remains. Of the majority, there is nothing to be seen. A large number of tributaries feed into the River Medway. The tributaries that powered watermills will be described in the order that they feed in. The mills are described in order from source to mouth. Left bank and right bank are referred to as though the reader is facing downstream. This article covers the watermills on the tributaries that feed in below Penshurst and above Yalding.
St Mary's Church is the parish church in Hadlow, Kent, United Kingdom. The church is a Grade II* listed building.
The Hartlake disaster was an accident in Kent, England, that resulted in the death of 30 hop-pickers on 20 October 1853.
These awards were created to celebrate design excellence in Kent and were first staged in 2003 and are usually held every two years. They were then renamed 'Kent Design and Development Awards' in 2012. Then have stayed as the 'Kent Design and Development Awards' in 2014.
Sir (Hugh) Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake was a businessman, zoo owner and author. Between 1915 and 1950, he was twelve times the Mayor of Maidstone, Kent and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1956–57.