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House Magazine

The Museum's next project -Tindalls Cottage

The Museum's main new exhibit project for 2002-3 will be the repair and re-erection of Tindalls Cottage, from Ticehurst in East Sussex. Tindalls Cottage was dismantled in 1974 by the Robertsbridge & District Archaeological Society in advance of the construction of the Bewl Bridge Reservoir, and recorded by David Martin.

Tindalls is a late-17th or 18th century timber-framed cottage with a brick chimney at one end. It has two rooms on each floor, plus an attic and an out- shot, and was probably the home of a smallholder. It fits in very well with the existing Museum exhibits, as it parallels the later development of cottages such as Poplar Cottage, in which a stone chimney was built inside the original smoke bay, and an outshot was added to the rear wall. Tindalls has a stone chimney and an outshot, but also the additional feature of an original attic room.

The main windows were originally glazed with leaded lights, and its original winding stairs survived, next to the fireplace - the same position as in Poplar Cottage. Most of its original timber framing was complete, and it contained many re-used timbers. One of the first things we will do when the timbers are removed from storage is to examine them individually and try to work out what sort of buildings they originated in.

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Impressive Visitor Numbers -2001

The hard work of all volunteers and staff at the Museum during 2001 paid off, as despite the dreadful challenges we faced, including Chris Zeuner's untimely death and five weeks' enforced closure due to foot-and-mouth restrictions, a total of nearly 140,000 people enjoyed the Museum. This was up more than 1% compared to 2000.

The number of visitors attending special events was generally up compared to 2000 but it was particularly gratifying to record a sustained increase in daily visitors throughout the season.

We continue to work hard to generate coverage about the Museum in all media, and 2001 saw an appearance on BBC1's Generation Game, when Reg Knight showed contestants and over nine million viewers how to daub a wattle frame. We also had several appearances on BBC South and small items in national newspapers prior to special events, including a feature on the Autumn Countryside Celebration. There have been numerous articles on the Downland Gridshell including features in The Independent, The Guardian, The Financial Times and a whole page in the West Sussex Gazette. Radio interviews included Richard Harris speaking to Maxwell Hutchinson in Let there be light on Radio 4 and Diane Walker talking on Spirit FM on new workshops supported by Barclays and designed for schoolchildren with special educational needs.

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‘Outstanding client’ award for the Museum

The Sussex branch of the RIBA has given the Museum a special award as an outstanding client, in recognition of its role in commissioning the Downland Gridshell.

The award has been sponsored by the Italian lighting company iGuzzini Ltd and was presented to the Museum by branch president Giles Ings at their annual dinner on 24 November. The prize money will be used to commission work from local artist Rachel Johnston, who lives in West Dean. Miss Johnston works in metals, using etching, filigree and other techniques to produce fine and original pieces of work.

For this commission, she will produce a metal panel for the Downland Gridshell that describes the building for blind people — a work of art with an important function.

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The Cotton Chair Collection

In Summer 2000 the Museum agreed in principle to accept the extremely important collection of provenanced vernacular English chairs from Dr Bernard (Bill) Cotton. Dr Cotton and the Regional Furniture Museum Trust, which had been formed to find a home for the collection, felt that the Museum would be ideal, so we undertook to look at the possibility of storing the collection in the new Downland Gridshell building.

A year later, however, there was a completely unexpected development, in that the Geffrye Museum in London found that it had the possibility of acquiring a very large neighbouring building, which would give it space for a library and learning centre, and for the Cotton collection. The Geffrye is England’s leading museum dealing with “middle class” furniture, and the Cotton collection would allow it to broaden its coverage to include rural as well as urban examples. Eventually the Museum expects to be a centre for regional furniture studies — its director, David Dewing, is chairman of the Regional Furniture Society, which was founded by Bill Cotton.

All parties — Bill Cotton, the Geffrye trustees and our own trustees — felt that this solution offered the best prospects for the collection, and we have willingly accepted that it will not now be coming to Singleton. However, we have gained a great deal from our close contact with Dr Cotton, in that it has become apparent that the south east — our own region — is poorly represented in his collection, and lacks the benefit of the extraordinarily high quality research that he has done in other regions. We therefore propose to establish a research project into vernacular furniture of the Weald and Downland, starting with vernacular chairs of the 18th and 19th century. Dr Cotton has agreed to support and take part in this initiative, and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with him.

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Safeguarding the Museum’s future

An Endowment Fund will offer the Museum financial security

The Museum, now in its 35^th year, has developed from small beginnings to official recognition of the quality of its work through the national Designation scheme – and all without any direct Government funding.

Over the years a considerable amount of money has been generated through fund raising, but in 2000 it was decided to establish a new registered charity to build an endowment fund with the specific purpose of underpinning the Museum’s longer-term financial position.

In spite of 2001 being a difficult year for an open air museum – problems such as foot and mouth disease and the September 11 World Trade Centre disaster – progress was maintained and the new Building Conservation Centre and Museum Store will be open shortly, providing another major opportunity to publicise and expand our work.

Operating independently with no direct Government funding, all forms of support are vital to the Museum’s future health and are gratefully received. The Museum has been fortunate to be in receipt of various legacies and personal donations over the years, and we are now particularly asking all our supporters and regular visitors to seriously consider making a legacy in their wills to help the Museum safeguard its future.

The Endowment Fund was launched with a substantial sum from the Minet legacy. Other monies have since been added, bringing the current total to over Ł100,000. These contributions have, in addition to legacies, come in the form of individual donations and shares, which can be given tax-effectively through the Government’s new Gift Aid schemes.

Legacies remain a most important way of increasing endowment income. If you would like to help the Museum in this way your solicitor can advise you. Legacies do not need to be large - all donations will be welcomed – and all legacy income will be spent directly on project work, not on administration.

Recently I took my 25-year-old son on his first visit to the Museum on a pretty unpleasant and murky day, but he described it as ‘brilliant’ and ‘special’, with which I totally agree.

We hope you will want to contribute to the Endowment Fund, helping to support this very special museum.

Hugo Clifford Brown
Chairman of Trustees, Weald & Downland Open Air Museum Endowment Trust

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Livestock at the Museum

In 1971, the Museum’s first full season of five months (44,000 visitors), David Benson grazed his flock of Dorset Down sheep, belonging to David Benson, were grazing on the Museum site when it opened in 1971, a tradition which continued with the Southdown flock of David Humphrey of East Dean. The rural context of most of the Museum's building exhibits and the development of the rural life collection led naturally to the acquisition of farm livestock for the site.

In 1988, with the help of the Friends, the Museum bought 15 ewes from Mr Humphrey, with the intention of keeping the flock small by selling the lambs each year. Horace 'Shep' Oliver, Mr Humphrey's shepherd, helped look after the flock until he died in 1989, aged nearly 90. The flock later expanded with the addition of Romney sheep, another important regional breed until in 2000, 33 ewes were put to the ram.

The first Sussex Oxen to be owned by the Museum arrived in 1982 from Mr Peter Clery’s farm at Upwaltham. They were called Hearty and Heedless, and were trained to work together under the yoke and do carting and site jobs at the Museum. Two more bullocks were acquired in 1985, and three heifers in 1988, the latter in preparation for the opening of the Bayleaf Farmstead in 1989.

The Museum’s long association with Shire horses began with Rhyme, who came to Singleton from Whitbread’s London stable in 1979. He was followed by Freddie, from the same stable, but sadly both horses had to be destroyed because of diseased bones, a legacy of their years pounding London streets. Their replacement was William, an eight-year-old Shire cross owned by Chris and Diana Zeuner. William was a more appropriate carthorse type than the tall brewery horses. William worked diligently for the Museum throughout the 1980s, working on site at farming and forestry tasks and promoting the Museum off site at parades and events. Jim arrived from a prominent West Country Shire breeder to enable a pair to be worked, rapidly building a reputation for a superb temperament. With William’s demise through age, he was joined by Neville from the East Midlands, and by Rosie, who has produced a succession of excellent foals.

As this brief outline shows, livestock have been present on the Museum site since the earliest days, and have become an established and much-loved feature. In February 2001 all that changed with the sudden advent of foot-and-mouth disease. We could not risk opening while livestock were still on site, as the infection could have been brought in by a visitor. So they were moved to grazing land off site, kindly provided by Museum Trustee Lady Elizabeth Benson, thus allowing the Museum to re-open on 1 April.

Now (January 2002) the epidemic appears to be over, and we are planning to bring the animals back. The break has, however, given us time to re-think our livestock policy, so there will be a few changes in the arrangements under which the animals are kept in an attempt to maximise their value as part of visitors’ experience at the Museum.

Livestock will be held on site for five purposes:

	To show the most traditional regional breeds and explain the changes brought about by modern breeding
	To provide a context for associated artefacts such as harness, sheep bells, and wheeled vehicles
	To bring specific buildings to life, demonstrating the importance farm livestock held for the occupants of our building exhibits
	To show specific themes in regional agriculture, such as the use of Sussex oxen for ploughing, and Downland sheep management
	To provide an enjoyable atmosphere and surroundings for visitors.

For the sheep we will revert to the original policy of having a flock of about 15 Southdowns being kept on the Museum site but owned by a professional breeder. We hope to reintroduce sheep shearing, and to show other aspects of traditional Downland sheep management as well.

The operation of the horses — which have remained on site during the FMD epidemic as they are not susceptible to the disease — will remain as it is at present.

The previous herd of Sussex cattle has now been sold, and we are to acquire a pair of new-born Sussex calves that will be trained by Chris Baldwin, who operates at the Woodland Craft Centre at the Museum. They will learn to work under the yoke, and if successful we will acquire a further pair in a year or two’s time. The oxen will demonstrate ploughing as well as carting and general duties, so that visitors will be able to compare horses and oxen.

Paul Pinnington, Chris’s partner at the Woodland Craft Centre, will take responsibility for pigs, acquiring two Tamworth sows to keep at the Museum. We are building a pigsty behind Pendean, where the sows will have their litters, and they will also work in the woods, cleaning the ground. Paul will also keep a poultry flock, probably Dorking hens, at Pendean.