Kent Life (formerly the Museum of Kent Life) is an English

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� ...

located at Sandling, next to Allington Locks, on the east bank of the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

History

Sir

Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake __NOTOC__ Sir (Hugh) Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake (22 May 1881 – 24 October 1964) was a businessman, zoo owner and author. Between 1915 and 1950, he was twelve times the Mayor of Maidstone, Kent and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1956–57. Life Tyrw ...

bequeathed the Cobtree Manor Estate to

Maidstone Borough Council Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with ...

in 1966. A part of the estate was Sandling Farm, on the banks of the Medway. In 1984 a decision was made to restore the derelict farm as part of a rural life museum. The museum opened to the public on July 6, 1985.Kentish Oasts p159Museum of Kent Life
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Farming

At the museum, various aspects of farming are recreated. There are two small hop gardens, growing Fuggles and Goldings hops. Apple and plum orchards, a herb garden, a soft fruit garden and various livestock.

Buildings

The museum has a variety of buildings, most of which have been dismantled and re-erected at the museum.

Barn

A five bay barn dating from the eighteenth century and originally at Vale Farm, Calcott, near

Sturry Sturry is a village on the Great Stour river situated northeast of Canterbury in Kent. Its large civil parish incorporates several hamlets and, until April 2019, the former mining village of Hersden. Geography Sturry lies at the old Roman junc ...

. The barn has an

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

frame and a

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

ed roof. It was dismantled in 1984 and re-erected at the museum in 1989.Museum of Kent Life
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Chapel

The

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

is a timber-framed building clad in

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a bu ...

tin tabernacle A tin tabernacle, also known as an iron church, is a type of prefabricated ecclesiastical building made from corrugated galvanised iron. They were developed in the mid-19th century initially in the United Kingdom. Corrugated iron was first us ...

). It was originally built in 1897 in

Cuxton Cuxton is a village in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It lies on the left bank of the River Medway in the North Downs. It is served by the A228, and Cuxton railway station on the Medway Valley Line between Strood and Maid ...

and was donated to the museum in 2000 when a new chapel was built.Museum of Kent Life
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Lenham Cottages

Originally called ''Old Cottage'' and ''Water Street Cottage'', these cottages stood at

Lenham Lenham is a market village and civil parish in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hotel), a couple of restaurants, and a tea ...

. The Grade II listed building were threatened by the building of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

rail link. The builder of the link offered the cottages to the museum, along with the funding for their removal and re-erection. They were dismantled in June 1999, and re-erected between January 2000 and March 2001, opening to the public in July 2001.Museum of Kent Life
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Petts Farmhouse

A late-eighteenth-century farmhouse.Museum of Kent Life
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/ref> Petts Farmhouse is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building.English Heritage
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Sandling Farmhouse

Sandling farmhouse is one of the original farm buildings. It was the home of George Brundle, the last tenant of the farm until his death at 98 in 2001. The building dates to the sixteenth century, and has links to

Sir Thomas Wyatt Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was ...

.Museum of Kent Life
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Forge

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

's forge has been recreated at the museum.Museum of Kent Life
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Granary

A nineteenth-century

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

from Boxley Grange Farm,

Boxley Boxley is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It lies below the slope of the North Downs approximately northeast of the centre of Maidstone town. The civil parish has a population of 7,144 (2001 census), inc ...

, was dismantled in March 1993 and has been re-erected at the museum.Museum of Kent Life
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Hopper Huts

A set of

Hopper hut A hopper hut was a form of temporary accommodation provided for hops, hop-pickers on English farms in the 19th and 20th centuries. Background Before the days of mechanised farming, hop picking was a labour-intensive process, requiring a vastly g ...

s from North Frith Farm,

Hadlow Hadlow is a village in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte (in the Textus Roffens ...

was dismantled and re-erected at the museum. These huts are built of brick, with internal fireplaces.Museum of Kent Life
/ref> A set of hopper huts with a wood frame clad in

has been constructed, along with a cookhouse and

privy Privy is an old-fashioned term for an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse and by many other names. Privy may also refer to: * Privy council, a body that advises the head of state * Privy mark, a small mark in the design of a coin * Privy Pur ...

. Image:Cobtree Hopper.JPG, The rebuilt hopper huts from Hadlow Image:Cobtree Hopper2.JPG, The reconstructed hopper huts Image:Cobtree cookhouse.JPG, The reconstructed cookhouse Image:Cobtree privy.JPG, The privy

Oast

One of the original farm buildings. The

oast An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many re ...

originally had four kilns, two round and two square.

Hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

had last been dried here some time before 1925. The two square kilns were demolished in 1935 and the stowage was damaged in a fire in 1951. The oast was restored in 1984, both round kilns and one square kiln being restored with

cowls A cowl is an item of clothing consisting of a long, hooded garment with wide sleeves, often worn by monks. Originally it may have referred simply to the hooded portion of a cloak. In contemporary usage, however, it is distinguished from a clo ...

. The oast houses a reconstruction of a village store, being the interior fittings of a general store in

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Nat ...

.Museum of Kent Life
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Shepherd's Hut

A shepherd's hut from Acton Farm,

Charing Charing is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment. T ...

was presented to the museum in 1994.Museum of Kent Life
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Tack Room

tack room TACK is a group of archaea acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota, the first groups discovered. They are found in different environments ranging from acidophilic th ...

has been recreated at the museum.Museum of Kent Life
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Tearooms

The tearooms are housed in one of the original farm houses.Museum of Kent Life
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Village Hall

Of similar construction to the chapel. The old village hall from

Ulcombe Ulcombe is a village near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book and is thought to derive from 'Owl-coomb': 'coomb' (pronounced 'coo-m') meaning 'a deep little wooded valley; a hollow in a hill side' (Cha ...

was donated to the museum in 1997. It was dismantled in October 1997 and re-erected, opening to the public in June 2000.Museum of Kent Life
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Wagon Store

The wagon store building was purpose built at the museum in 1993. The re-created forge is at one end.Museum of Kent Life
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References

Sources

External links

Museum of Kent Life
homepage {{Maidstone Open-air museums in England Museums in the Borough of Maidstone Houses in Kent Rural history museums in England Local museums in Kent Farm museums in England Agricultural museums in England