Rural LifeLiving Museum

The Rural Life Living Museum grew out of a collection Henry and Madge Jackson began assembling in 1948, opening to the public as the Old Kiln Agricultural Museum in 1973 and continuing today under the Old Kiln Museum Trust, an independent charity rather than a council service. The site near Tilford gathers historic farm buildings, a working blacksmith's forge, an arboretum of more than a hundred tree species and a narrow-gauge line, the Old Kiln Light Railway, built and run by volunteers. Displays cover farming, hop growing, crafts and nineteenth-century village social history, arranged in and around reconstructed rural buildings rather than behind glass cases. Volunteers keep an iron furnace and a woodyard in working order for visitors to see in use. The museum hosts school visits and private events alongside general admission, run largely by the same volunteer base that maintains its machinery.