Chiltern Open Air Museum

The Chiltern Open Air Museum stands in the Chiltern Hills near Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire. It is an open-air museum of historic buildings rescued from demolition and rebuilt on a 45-acre site of woodland and parkland. The collection includes more than 35 structures such as barns, farm buildings, houses and a working historic farm with animals. Among the buildings are a 1940s prefab, an Iron Age house reconstruction, a Victorian toll house, a Tin Chapel and a forge. A pair of 18th-century labourers’ cottages and a High Wycombe chair factory also feature in the display. The museum rescues common English buildings from the Chilterns that might otherwise be destroyed. Its collection highlights local trades like chair making and wartime life through reconstructed Nissen huts and a Dig for Victory allotment. A Haddenham wychert farmhouse waited 30 years in storage before reconstruction in 2014. The museum also holds Jackson Studios, a dismantled recording studio once used by artists including Elton John and Motörhead. Hands-on activities such as blacksmithing, weaving and historic cooking take place regularly alongside annual re-enactments and living history events. The site is popular with school groups and has won awards for its educational work. It is often used as a filming location for period dramas because of its authentic buildings, being close to Pinewood and Leavesden studios. Productions such as Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Midsomer Murders have been filmed here. The museum also runs environmentally friendly initiatives and won the Pride of Bucks environmental award in 2013.