Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings facts for kids
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| Established | 1963 |
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| Location | Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, England |
| Type | Local independent museum |
The Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings is a special place in Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, England. It's an open-air museum where old buildings that were going to be destroyed have been saved and moved. The museum started in 1963 and opened its doors in 1967. It was created to save a 15th-century wooden house from Bromsgrove. This made Avoncroft England's first open-air museum. It was also the second in the whole United Kingdom, after the St Fagans National Museum of History in Wales.
Today, that first building is called the 'Town House'. It used to be known as the 'Bromsgrove House' or 'Merchant's House'. The museum now has many different types of old buildings. These include homes, factories, farm buildings, and more. Most of them were carefully taken apart and then rebuilt at the museum.
The museum has over 30 buildings and structures. Each one was moved to Avoncroft to protect it from being torn down. These buildings show over 700 years of history. You can see a working windmill and even a "prefab" house. Prefab houses were quickly built after World War II. They helped people who lost their homes in bombings. The "Arcon V" prefab house at Avoncroft came from Yardley, Birmingham, in 1981.
Many events happen at the museum. Weddings are often held in The New Guesten Hall. This building uses the old wooden roof from Guesten Hall, which was once next to Worcester Cathedral. The New Guesten Hall is also used for concerts, meetings, and other events. The museum has a Victorian church from 1891. It was moved from Bringsty Common, Herefordshire, and opened again in 1996. Church services are held there when the museum is open.
Other interesting exhibits show history from over 700 years ago. These include a perry mill, a toll house, and a fibreglass spire. You can also see an earth closet (an old toilet), a cruck-frame barn, and a counting house.
Contents
What You Can See at Avoncroft
The buildings at Avoncroft Museum were all moved there to save them. They might have been destroyed or left to fall apart. Together, they tell stories from over 700 years of history. Most buildings come from the Midlands area of England.
How Buildings Were Saved
Some of the first buildings moved were the town house, windmill, and granary. These were carefully taken apart and rebuilt by Gunolt Daniel Greiner and his son Francis Benedict Joseph Greiner. They also restored other 15th-century buildings at different open-air museums in England. For example, they worked on the Bayleaf house at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. Gunolt always tried to keep the buildings looking original. If he didn't know how something looked, he would make it simple and plain. An example is the plain oak stairway in the town house.
Types of Buildings
The museum has many different kinds of buildings. Some are industrial, like the chain shop. Others are homes, such as the prefab house and the toll house. There are religious buildings, like the church. You can also find farm buildings, like the windmill, barn, and stable. Some buildings were for fun, like the cockpit. Other unique buildings include a cell block, an earth closet, and an ice house.
Some buildings are set up inside to show what life was like in a certain time period. Others are empty or hold displays.
Small Collections
The museum also has a collection of smaller items. These items help tell the story of the larger buildings. Some are displayed inside the buildings. The rest are kept safely in the museum's storage.
Telephone Kiosk Collection
Avoncroft Museum is home to the UK's National telephone kiosk Collection. This is the biggest collection of telephone boxes in the country. It's part of a project called Connected Earth, which looks after telephone history. You can see the full history of UK telephone kiosks from 1912 to the 1990s. There are also three working old-style analogue telephone exchanges. One is a mobile TXE2. You can also see a manual switchboard and early automatic systems. These show how phone calls were made before digital technology.
Museum Events
The museum has many different events throughout the year. These events often change. Most events are for families, but some are for older adults. Because families are a focus, many events happen on bank holiday weekends and during school holidays.
Events often have historical themes. You might see actors dressed up as people from different time periods. These can include the Wars of the Roses, Victorian times, or the 1940s.
Images for kids
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Glasgow police box, like Doctor Who's TARDIS
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BT's last Strowger electromechanical exchange
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Agricultural buildings at Avoncroft
