Chiltern Open Air Museum

A man and woman needing dough in a cottage.

This weekend at the Museum we'll be baking, bodging and rope making.

On Saturday we’ll be making loaves traditionally and multi- skilled craftsman, Alan will also be showing visitors his rope making skills.

On Sunday see chair making demonstrations.

Find out more >> www.coam.org.uk/events

Work is continuing on site to reconstruct our 1950s bandstand. This is a view of the roof struts. Cedar shingles will be going on soon, so these wont be visible for much longer.

Pink roses in bloom outside a brick cottage with red window frames.

Our beautiful roses outside of Astleham cottage are in bloom.

#flowers #roses #garden

Thanks for visiting

A thatched cottage with orange flowers in the garden.

Thanks to a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant we now have x2 paid 30hr/week traineeship opportunities.

Collections and Interpretation NLHF Trainee
Marketing and Visitor Experience NLHF Trainee

We're also recruiting an Evaluation Consultant.

Find out more www.coam.org.uk/joinus/careers

#job

A mobile phone screen showing Chiltern Open Air Museum on the Bloomberg Connects App.

We're now on Bloomberg Connects - the arts & culture app. Discover more about our historic buildings, traditional gardens and heritage farm in this digital guide.

Have all the Museum information at your fingertips!

Download it at www.bloombergconnects.org

A knitted knight helmet on a display head.

We love these knitted knight hats in our museum shop. What’s your favourite museum purchase?

#museumshop #museum

A tree with lots of daffodils at its base

Daffodils in bloom

Bright and sunny daffodils in our Leagrave cottage garden.

#daffodil #Spring

A mother and daughter scarecrow in 1940s clothes

A father and son scarecrow in 1940s clothes

Our scarecrow family are back in our Dig for Victory allotment.

#1940s #chilternoam #scarecrow

Thank you for all your help.

Thank you

Congratulations!

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Museum + Heritage Awards in the Visitor Accessibility Award!

The global awards celebrate the very best in the world of museums, galleries, and cultural and heritage visitor attractions, so we're really excited to have made the shortlist.

Have you entered our photo competition yet? Your images of our Museum could be gracing the walls of one of our historic buildings this spring. Find out more at www.coam.org.uk/blogs/coam-p...

Close up of fresh hedging

Hedgelaying is a traditional technique for creating a living fence by partially cutting and bending the stems of shrubs or small trees. The goal is to encourage new growth from the base of the stems. It's only carried out between October and March when trees and shrubs are dormant.

This week our Estate Manager joined the talented COAM Costume team for a fitting of the wonderful smock they've been creating. These fabulous volunteers have been working on the smock since September and Rachael was thrilled to try it on.

Find out more www.coam.org.uk/blogs/costum...

Iron Age roundhouse with smoke coming through the roof

An unusual view of our Iron Age roundhouse captured by our Warden earlier today. The fire in the roundhouse helps to dry the thatch and prevent infestations. It doesn't have a chimney or visible hole for the smoke to escape, so always looks quite magical when it billows through the roof.

A small red book on a wooden table.

This week's Object of the Week is a Daily Mail Year Book 1948.

Located in the lounge of Amersham Prefab, you can find a 1948 edition of the Daily Mail Yearbook. It contained a selection of news headlines, to provide a summary of the year for its readers.

#artefact #museum

A line of eggs increasing in size on a bed of hay.

Our new chickens seem to be having a competition to see who can lay the biggest egg. One of the girls is clearly winning!

#chickens #eggs

Artist Call Out!

We're looking to commission 6 artists (with lived experience) to create works for a St Albans Museums' Black History Research Group (BHRG) zine. 

Submissions by 28 Feb 2025.

Purple orchids among the grass

Despite a difficult year, our 2024 survey results revealed encouraging wildlife highlights:

🍄 New UK fungi species recorded
🌷 19,143 orchids at Aston Clinton Ragpits
🐦 Dartford warblers increased at Snelsmore Common

Read a full account here: https://buff.ly/423GCc4

📷 Phil Townsend

An image of brickwork and windows at Oxburgh Hall, Oxford. Three windows of different shapes are set into a red-brick wall.

A stained glass window at a church at Great Chalfield Manner. The stained glass shows a country landscape with a river in the foreground and fields with trees in the background.

Windows on the West front of Newton House Garden at Dinefwr, Carmarthenshire. The windows shine in the background while a red flower is out of focus in the foreground.

Stained glass window depicting Queen Elizabeth I, Melford Hall, Suffolk. Elizabeth is featured in red and gold with an elaborate crown and crown jewels.

We've seen your #WindowsOnWednesday posts and raise you these windows from our own collection.

A cream smock with collar

Our talented costume team have been working on a smock for our Estate Manager. The design is early Victorian although smocks had been worn by agricultural workers for centuries. Find our about the history and design of smocks on our blog www.coam.org.uk/blogs/creati...

#historiccostume #history

A reconstructed furniture factory from High Wycombe. It is L shaped with two floors painted green.

We're celebrating #HeritageTreasures! Chair-making is part of the heritage of the Chilterns, our High Wycombe Furniture Factory was home to Elliott & Sons, holders of the National Scheme for Employment of Disabled Men Certificate. www.coam.org.uk/buildings/hi...

@heritagefunduk.bsky.social

The front cover of Walter Keep's scrapbook, showing a man pasting up the word 'scraps' over a fence.

Recently we received a new donation of a scrapbook once belonging to Mr Walter Keep. This is a fantastic record of his experiences in the First World War, and we'll be sharing some highlights on our pages! He kept a great record of his service and has filled the scrapbook with lots of annotations.

🔔 We're hiring 🔔

The (RBOR) Nature and Greenspaces Officer will help nature recover by working with stakeholders on the development of a series of projects that take action to improve outcomes for wildlife.

To find out more and apply: https://buff.ly/3DFFlh9

Heritage Crafts and @theroyalmintuk.bsky.social have launched four new training bursaries for new and early-career precious metal workers who will benefit from up to £4,000 in funding as well as one-to-one support from Heritage Crafts. Deadline 7 March. www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-stories/...

Four men working on a ramp outside Thame vicarage.

We may be closed for the winter but work continues, maintaining and improving the site ready for re-opening in spring. This week our volunteers have been installing a new ramp for Thame Vicarage Room, making it accessible to more visitors in the new season.

Paw print in the snow

Victorian tollhouse in the snow

The wildlife that live on the Museum site have been exploring in the dusting of snow. In front of the tollhouse we saw prints from badgers, deer and a heron. What prints have you found during these wintery days?

#snow #pawprints

A piece of embroidery in a frame on a wall.

An embroidered sampler, dated 1853 in its original frame, can be found hung on the wall of our Haddenham Cottage. It shows a number of embroidered images, including flowers, shrubs, birds and butterflies. It also shows the alphabet in capitals and numbers up to 50.

#museumobject #embroidery