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Ursula Bourne, East Anglian Village and Town Signs

East Anglia - folk life museums & social history exhibits

Ideas for visits to museums of rural and domestic life, as lived in the recent or more distant past - historic buildings housing social history collections, a living history village

cottage fireplace, furnishings This is a guide for people who want to visit museums of "folk life" or ordinary homes from previous centuries. You can explore social history in villages, settlements, open air museums, or farm and urban heritage exhibits telling the story of working people's daily lives in town or country. We list places where you can look at domestic life, everyday objects, traditional crafts, old cottages, preserved villages, old-fashioned farms etc. from past centuries. OldandInteresting hopes these suggestions will help people find good days out, and plan holidays. Enjoy!
This may not be one of the biggest regions but you can explore a long timespan. Find out about Anglo-Saxon houses and furnishings in the West Stow village or explore 1940s home life in the farmworker's cottage at the Farmland Museum. Norfolk Museums Service has several historic buildings housing interesting domestic items, like the baby walker at Strangers' Hall. The Cambridge Folk Museum started life as one of a handful of early 20th century collections aiming to make sure disappearing lifestyles and everyday items were not lost forever. The Museum of East Anglian Life is a large "village" and deserves a long visit, though home life (this website's topic) is given less attention than trades and farming.

East Anglia

Cambridgeshire

thatched half-timbered Norfolk

Suffolk


Please check opening times - especially of smaller or volunteer-run places.

UK folk museums, domestic life and social history exhibits, ordinary homes in the past - introduction

Please send an email if you want to suggest an addition to this list of museums and other exhibits about "ordinary" or "folk" or "everyday" ways of life in the past. So far we're trying to cover Britain and then Ireland, but suggestions for a future USA list are also very welcome. Even though grand castles and stately homes are fascinating too, sometimes with interesting kitchens, laundry rooms etc., they aren't listed here, and nor are industrial heritage exhibits all about manufacturing and technology, without workers' cottages. These pages emphasise ordinary domestic life, our ancestors' everyday objects, traditional crafts, living history, old cottages, preserved villages, old-fashioned farms etc.

Copyright - Information is free, but lists are not! This is the legal position in the UK, and in the USA and many other countries too for "creative" lists like this. As you will appreciate, it takes time, effort, and knowledge to assemble this kind of directory. OldandInteresting has reserved all rights in this work. If you think your readers would be interested, please just link and don't copy.


You may like our new sister site Home Things Past where you'll find articles about antiques, vintage kitchen stuff, crafts, and other things to do with home life in the past. There's space for comments and discussion too. Please do take a look and add your thoughts.  (Comments don't appear instantly.)

For sources please refer to the books page, and/or the excerpts quoted on the pages of this website, and note that many links lead to museum sites. Feel free to ask if you're looking for a specific reference - feedback is always welcome anyway. Unfortunately, it's not possible to help you with queries about prices or valuation.