The Rural Life Living Museum is in

Tilford Tilford is a village and civil parish centred at the point where the two branches of the River Wey merge in Surrey, England, south-east of Farnham. It has half of Charleshill, Elstead in its east, a steep northern outcrop of the Greensand Rid ...

, Surrey near Farnham in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Formerly known as the Old Kiln Agricultural Museum and the Rural Life Centre, it is an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

of country life run by the Old Kiln Museum Trust, a charitable trust. It covers over of field, woodland and barns, and collects and preserves objects associated with farming and goods used by local craftsmen between 1750 and 1960. There is also an arboretum with over one hundred species of trees. The museum displays farming through the seasons, local hop growing, tools and crafts allied to country industries and needs. The social history of village life from the 19th century is displayed covering school life, domestic work, period shops and trades. There is a working iron furnace and a woodyard, both run by the volunteers. It also hosts the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Old Kiln Light Railway The Old Kiln Light Railway is a narrow gauge railway at the Rural Life Living Museum in Tilford, near Farnham, Surrey. It has a collection of historic locomotives and rolling stock including two steam locomotives. It operates on most weeken ...

and a Blacksmith's forge. The museum was originally assembled as a private collection by Henry and Madge Jackson, starting from 1948 when they moved into the adjacent Old Kiln Cottage. The Old Kiln Agricultural Museum itself first opened in 1973, originally occupying ''Henry's Yard'', a small part of the current site. In 1984 the museum trust was created to secure the museum's future, and the museum was renamed as the Rural Life Centre. Madge and Henry both died in the early years of the 21st century. In 2019 the museum obtained further funding and was again renamed, this time to the Rural Life Living Museum.

References

External links

Rural Life Living Museum website
Museums in Surrey Rural history museums in England Borough of Waverley Open-air museums in England {{UK-museum-stub