Major road changes in late twentieth-century Chesham transformed the historic town centre and led to the loss of several long-standing buildings. Discover how Chiltern Open Air Museum helped save important shops, a traditional coachworks and a forgotten baker’s oven — preserving valuable stories of local life and trade.

The Kempston Slaughterhouse, originally located behind a butcher’s shop on Kempston High Street, was rescued from demolition and moved to the Museum. Dating from the nineteenth century and last used around 1935, the building reveals how meat was prepared and sold locally before refrigeration.

Discover St Albans Abbey Barn, also known as St Julian’s Barn, a vast medieval monastic barn now in storage at the Chiltern Open Air Museum. Built in the fourteenth century to store grain for the abbey, this impressive structure reveals the scale of monastic farming and medieval craftsmanship.

Discover the story of the Dunstable Shop, a medieval timber-framed building now in storage at the Chiltern Open Air Museum. From Roman roads and royal planning to inns, shops and centuries of changing use, this building reveals how travel and trade shaped the historic market town of Dunstable.