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Kent Life (formerly the Museum of Kent Life and Kent Life Heritage Farm Park) is a farm park located at Sandling near Maidstone, next to Allington Locks on the east bank of the River Medway. It once operated as an open-air museum, before rebranding as a heritage farm park. [1] It was renamed as "Kent Life" in 2009. [2]
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. As of 2013 it no longer operates as a museum and rebranded as a Heritage Farm Park, the historic houses are accessible as part of the daily ticket to the attraction which also offers tractor rides, arts and crafts, animal feeding and seasonal events yearly. [3] [4]
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 attraction has a variety of buildings, most of which have been dismantled and re-erected across the site .
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. [5]
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. [6]
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. [7]
A late-eighteenth-century farmhouse. [8] [9] Petts Farmhouse is a Grade II* listed building. [10]
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. [11]
A blacksmith's forge has been recreated at the museum. [12]
A nineteenth-century granary from Boxley Grange Farm, Boxley, was dismantled in March 1993 and has been re-erected at the museum. [13]
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. [14] 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. [3] [15]
A shepherd's hut from Acton Farm, Charing was presented to the museum in 1994. [16]
The tearooms are housed in one of the original farm houses. [18]
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. [19]
The wagon store building was purpose built at the museum in 1993. The re-created forge is at one end. [20]
An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. Oast houses can be found in most hop-growing areas, and are often good examples of agricultural vernacular architecture. Many redundant oast houses have been converted into houses. The names "oast" and "oast house" are used interchangeably in Kent and Sussex, but 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.
Sturry is a village on the Great Stour river situated 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Canterbury in Kent. Its large civil parish incorporates several hamlets and, until April 2019, the former mining village of Hersden.
Boxley is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England.
Hurst Green is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, and is located south of the East Sussex / Kent border at Flimwell.
Lenham is a market village and civil parish in the Maidstone district, in Kent, England, 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. The parish 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. The museum covers 40 acres (16 ha), with over 50 historic buildings dating from 950AD to the 19th century, along with gardens, farm animals, walks and a mill pond.
Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) is an independent open-air museum of vernacular buildings and a tourist attraction located near Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St. Giles in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, England. Its collection consists mainly of historic buildings at risk of demolition that have been dismantled and reconstructed in the museum grounds in a process of structure relocation.
Boxley Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Sandling, near Maidstone in Kent, England. It sits at the foot of the North Downs and falls within the parish of Boxley.
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.
Hunton is a civil parish and village near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England.
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.
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.
East Worldham is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Worldham, in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1.9 miles (3.1 km) east of Alton; and 1.9 miles (3.1 km) south-west of Wyck. Hartley Mauditt and West Worldham are nearby, which, along with East Worldham, form the parish of Worldham. The village is just east of the A31 road and contains St Mary's Church and the Three Horse Shoes pub, amongst other buildings. Worldham Golf Course located just to west and Dean Farm Golf Course just to the east. For centuries the village and surrounding parish were owned by Winchester College. In 1931 the parish had a population of 208.
Cookhouse is a small village located in Eastern Cape province, South Africa, some 170 kilometres (110 mi) north of Port Elizabeth and 24 kilometres (15 mi) east of Somerset East, on the west bank of the Great Fish River.
Norton, Buckland and Stone is a small rural civil parish 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Teynham and 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the centre of Faversham in the borough of Swale, Kent, England. It is bypassed by the M2 to the south and traverses the historic A2, on the route of the Roman road of Watling Street. In 2011 the parish had a population of 467.
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.