History of Chiltern Open Air Museum

Vernacular buildings - the houses and workplaces of past generations - are disappearing every day from the landscape. In the Chilterns, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on London's doorstep, the pressures are particularly great. Chiltern Open Air Museum preserves and interprets the built heritage of the Chilterns that would otherwise be lost.

The Museum was founded in 1976, with the aim of rescuing threatened buildings and re-erecting them on our forty-five acre site of natural park, meadow and woodland, thereby preserving a variety of structures of historical or vernacular interest which are typical of the region.

How the Museum has changed - 25 years difference between the pairs of photos

Our collection of more than 30 buildings are deliberately grouped. They include a working nineteenth century farmyard and a village with its green, cottages, forge and chapel. In their appropriate settings the buildings, the artefacts they contain and the activities associated with them all illustrate the influences that have shaped the distinctive landscape of the Chilterns.

The buildings are interpreted in a whole variety of ways - some serve their original function, some are equipped and furnished to represent later periods in their history, some house exhibitions on life in the Chilterns and others have been adapted to provide facilities for visitors.

Chiltern Open Air Museum is a registered charity (No. 272381) and receives no regular grants towards its running costs or capital projects. We rely on the generosity of many organisations and individuals. Much of the work of dismantling and re-erecting buildings is undertaken by volunteers. They also steward the buildings, serve in the shop, tearoom and ticket office, work in the Museum office and tend the animals in our working Victorian farm. (Click here to find out more about volunteering at the Museum.

The Museum has a thriving Friends' Group with over 1,000 members who raise over £20,000 each year towards Museum projects. (Click here to find out more about being a Friend of the Museum). They also run a programme of winter activities. Membership of the Friends provides free entry to the Museum during normal opening hours and a regular newsletter to keep members in touch with progress.

Group bookings are available, with discounted admission charges for parties of 15 or more, during our regular opening times or after we close for the day. School parties can sample our award-winning education programme, catering for over 10,000 school children each year, which interprets various eras and activities relating to the National Curriculum. (Click here to find out more).

We also supplement our normal day to day activities by being home to a variety of special events throughout the year, ranging from Live Crafts to Halloween.