Wing Granary

This granary, used for storing flour, was situated behind the bakery at 17 Vicarage Lane, Wing, Buckinghamshire, and was built around 1820. The cost of re-erection at the museum was £500. It is constructed of oak and elm, clad with elm weatherboarding and sits on nine cast iron staddles.

Donated by Mr.& Mrs. Dunstan of Holmer Green

Shepherd's Living Van

This van from Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire, dates from around 1915 and was used as living quarters for shepherds at lambing time in the winter and early spring. The exterior is weatherboarded, while the interior is lined with tongued, grooved and beaded boarding fixed diagonally, thus bracing the structure. The shepherd could be assured of a hot meal from the cast-iron cooking stove inside. His bed was in the van, at the end furthest from the door.

Gorhambury Cart Shed

Originally built in the nineteenth century, this cart shed came from the Gorhambury Estate in St Albans. It was built using a variety of timbers - presumably coming from the Estate woodlands.  The walls are clad with elm weatherboarding, which is painted with coal tar. The roof is slated and capped with red clay ridge tiles, a particular feature of the farm buildings on the Gorhambury Estate.

Donated by Tunnel Cement Company
Rebuilt 1982 - 1985

Marsworth Cattle Shelter, Stable and Cart Shed

This L-shaped complex dates from 1836 and formed part of College Farm, Marsworth owned by Trinity College, Cambridge. The thatched buildings are timber-framed, with the walls supported on brick plinths and clad with weatherboarding. The cattle shelter reflects the growing concern in Victorian times for protecting livestock from the cold and wet. The entire farm was laid out and constructed on the principles of the 'model farm'.

Borehamwood Cattle Byre

This byre was rescued in 1985 from Tilehouse Farm, Borehamwood in Hertfordshire. The building dates from the mid-nineteenth century, when many local farms expanded their milk production to meet the demands of the London markets. The building has a softwood frame sitting on a brick plinth and is clad with weatherboarding. The roof is of slate.

Rebuilt 1985  

Hill Farm Barn

This early nineteenth-century barn from Chalfont St. Peter in Buckinghamshire is a timber-framed structure of five bays, the central bay having been used for threshing. Built largely of softwood, the barn has a clay peg-tile roof and a rammed earth floor. Some of the main timbers are reused, having come from an earlier building. The 60 foot long ladder in the roof was used in the local orchard for picking cherries.

Rossway Granary

Built in 1802 at Rossway Home Farm, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the granary was originally a two-bay structure, approximately square in plan, with equal-sized storage bins on each floor. Around 1850 the granary was rebuilt, a new rear section being added and the roof raised to increase headroom upstairs. In its final form, the granary could hold about seventy-five tons of wheat. The twelve mushroom-shaped stone staddles on which the building sits are original, and probably came from Portland in Dorset, where they were produced on a large scale. Their function is to keep vermin out and to protect the building and its contents from damp.

High Wycombe Toll House

This three-roomed house was built in 1826 for the collector of tolls on the London to Oxford road at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.  Constructed of brick, it has a slate roof and central chimney stack.  The walls are topped with castellations.  However at the back, which would not have been seen by passers-by, is very plain. Records show that when first built the Toll House cost £500. It is quite small, although it was occupied by a family of five in 1841. The house has been furnished as it might have been in the 1860s when it was last used for collecting tolls. Above the front door is the clock, installed in 1826 and still working today!