THE crowning glory of the Rural Life Centre’s summer calendar – Rustic Sunday – has celebrated its 40th anniversary.
The tradition is as old as the museum itself and promotes the best of yesteryears’s countryside in a refreshingly entertaining manner.
Nostalgia was again at the fore on July 30 as a vanished way of life, in its many manifestations, was brought back into focus.
Visitors could get fired up at the blacksmith’s forge, take a look at the recently reconstructed iron furnace, go with the grain at the woodyard, and take a ride on the Old Kiln Light Railway’s steam train.
There was numerous stalls and demonstrations, and a dolls’ house large enough to enter and explore proved popular with children.
In addition to all this, visitors enjoyed a farmers’ market, the syncopated rhythms of a jazz band as well as the museum’s permanent displays of agricultural and village life.
Rustic Sunday is one of the venue’s most eagerly anticipated events and is as popular now as when it began many years ago. With agricultural techniques, and rural living, evolving at great pace, this annual event becomes increasingly relevant.
The museum was opened in 1973 by Henry and Madge Jackson and Rustic Sunday was soon established as a crucial fundraising event. Its role hasn’t changed and neither has its charm.
The Old Kiln Cafe also served a range of refreshments and meals, and parking was freely available.
It is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. More details can be found online at www.rural-life.org.uk or by calling 01252 795571.