Leisure Attraction - Weald & Downland Museum

We booked this lovely B&B guest house near Arundel, West Sussex for three nights for a long weekend break and found we shared it with two cats, two dogs, four chickens and a family of rabbits!  The hospitality was excellent and there were three good pubs for evening meals within a 20 minute walk - and we tried all three, wey hey, ideal!

Belinda sported her new short hair do on the sunny patio with one of the guest house dogs after breakfast on the first morning of our weekend break.

Our first visit of the weekend break was to the fascinating Weald & Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton, near Chichester in West Sussex.

Here's the Downland Gridshell, a workshop and store for the living and working museum.  But we were way too early for the 1.30pm tour and demonstration so...

...we wandered through the grounds and came across this family of piglets with Mum.  Mike lost count of the number of 'ahhs' Belinda uttered!  We walked for ages along the firm tracks at the museum.

Period characters at the Weald & Downland Museum were leading a sleigh pulling horse here; we couldn't quite work out what the purpose was, especially as there was no snow in sight on this warm spring day!

More "ahhs" here with the newly born lambs in this field, with Bayleaf Farmstead in the background, one of almost 50 conserved old buildings at the Weald & Downland Museum.  Next up...

...we sampled the produce made by the demonstrators in one of the many historic buildings dating from the 13th - 19th century, all rescued from destruction and authentically rebuilt, right down to...

...the shaky stairs in one of the ancient buildings.  We certainly got plenty of exercise on our visit to the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum!

This reconstructed school was originally from West Wittering, Sussex and was in use prior to 1851.  And no, Mike doesn't remember it well!

After a fair bit of walking we finally reached the historic Market Square, complete with its Market Hall and medieval shops, in the main area at Weald & Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex.

Plumbing, building and carpentry were all trades demonstrated by the ever helpful period characters doing live demonstrations.  Please see our UK tourist resources for the museum's website.

Mike tried the hands-on activities by having a go at building something with bricks!  He said it reminded him of his childhood Lego.

This is the impressive 17th century working watermill.  We entered and saw how the stone ground flour used in the museum café was made by the millers.

Next we fed the ducks on the pond with some animal feed we bought at the mill.  That odd contraption in the background is a wind pump and in front a water skiing duck whooshed in for a feed!  Our visit to the splendid Weald & Downland Open Air Museum cost £8.

We mentioned earlier the pubs near our Arundel B&B guest house.  Well, here's the Holly Tree at Walberton where we enjoyed an excellent evening meal.  Please proceed to our next page for Arundel Castle and Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre >>>