Chichester’s Weald & Downland Living Museum will be hosting a Hunker Down & Hibernate weekend on Sat 21 – Sun 22 Oct, exploring how people once prepared for the long winter months.
Winter was always a hard month for rural communities of the past as the weather got colder and the days grew shorter and darker. Hunker Down & Hibernate will show the various ways people would have survived these long months, from food preparation and working the land, to keeping warm.
During the weekend, visitors will get to see a range of cooking demonstrations in the Tudor Kitchen at Weald & Downland
Enter the bakehouse and historic homes, where you will see first-hand some of the techniques still used today such as salting, pickling and fermenting food to preserve it for longer. There will also be an opportunity to see demonstrations of brewing and apple pressing in the orchard.
There’s also a chance to discover the traditional winter tasks for agricultural workers and the role of the working animals. You might even get to see the heavy horses in action as they plough the fields.
There will be a chance to learn more about day-to-day rural life such as the tradition of two sleeps to make the most of daylight hours and how the state of the roads impacted communities.
Our rural ancestors worked closely with the seasons and nature, so the Museum will also look at how wildlife and animals adapted during winter.
Home to over 50 historic buildings from across the Weald and Downland area of Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, the Museum’s collection represents almost 1,000 years of rural life in South East England. Amongst the award-winning collection of homes, shops and public buildings is a working water mill, bakehouse, Victorian school, smithy and even a church, presented just as they would have been in the past with roaring fires, straw beds and historic gardens.
Hunker Down & Hibernate is one of many events hosted at the Museum to give visitors the opportunity to see, hear and even smell what rural life was once like.
To find out more and book tickets visit: www.wealddown.co.uk/
