On paper, this place is a ‘privately owned museum of retail and farming history’. In reality, it’s a hoarder’s trove of everything – we mean everything – you could possibly think of from the daily life of a bygone age. A hundred years worth of stuff, arranged by type in a hangar-like space, the packaging and advertisements alone make it a graphic designer’s paradise.
Inside the row upon row of enormous Victorian display cabinets, you’ll find collections of cigarettes and cleaning products, toys and 80-year-old chocolate bars still intact in their wrapping, and even agricultural medicines. (Poultry conditioner, anyone?) Oh, and there are more than 150 vintage tractors, just in case that’s your thing.
What’s mind-boggling is that someone thought to collect so many run-of-the-mill items, that with time have become relics of the past. Some of it is decidedly un-PC, but that’s important. More than a nostalgia trip, it’s a stark reminder of how our attitudes have (hopefully) changed over the past century.
There’s a homemade vibe to the whole place, unsurprising because it’s completely family-run. Be prepared to lose several hours in bewildered fascination before staggering, blinking, into the onsite café.