Explore the remarkable rescue of 177–179 and 193–195 High Street, Watford — two fifteenth-century timber-framed commercial buildings saved from demolition in the 1970s. Now preserved in store at Chiltern Open Air Museum, these medieval structures reveal layers of urban life, from warehouses and wagon ways to bakeries and twentieth-century shops.

Built around 1773 and hidden behind a shop in Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury, this timber-framed saddlery served local farmers for nearly two centuries. Saved from demolition and now in store at Chiltern Open Air Museum, it represents the skilled craftsmanship and rural trades that shaped Buckinghamshire’s market towns.

The Little Gaddesden Living Van is a rare survival of mobile rural accommodation, believed to have housed a gamekeeper, possibly on the Ashridge Estate. Dismantled and saved in 2001, this substantial timber van offers insight into estate life, seasonal labour and the practical realities of countryside employment in Hertfordshire. Now in store at Chiltern Open Air Museum, it represents an often overlooked but important part of rural heritage.