Explore the farmed land where traditional cereal crops and vegetables (such as)  are grown in the Museum’s fields and recreated medieval strip system.  Draught horses and cattle work the fields and haul carts during haymaking and harvesting.  Woolly faced sheep chew the Downland grass and in spring the lambs appeal to children and parents alike.  Tamworth pigs and their piglets hide in the pigsty or snuffle in the woodland and hens and geese peck in the straw around the farmstead.

Traditional farm building such as barns, stables, sheds and granaries house agricultural vehicles and machinery as well as exhibitions and displays.

In the late summer the wheat is reaped and stacked in traditional stooks and finally at the Autumn Countryside Show you can see a traditional threshing machine powered by a steam engine separating the grain, which is used to feed the chickens, from the thatching straw which is used by the Museum thatcher to repair and re- thatch some of the Museum buildings. Nothing is wasted as in earlier times.

All around the site you will find evidence of our agricultural past; a sheepfold used for lambing, and a wheeled shepherds hut.  Close by, a Reading Van or traditional gypsy caravan;  carts and equipment used in the hop industry and you may even see hops grown in the traditional way.  In the years when hops are grown they will be used to make beer.  Hidden between two high hedges close to Whittaker’s Cottages you will discover the Vehicle and Implement gallery where farm machinery from a bygone age is displayed.