The Way Things Were

Welcome to Leakey Vale Heritage Park

Leakey Vale was acquired in 2001 as a semi-organic mixed livestock and arable farm with extensive woodlands and an area of chalk downland. The present owners have turned it into a living history park - a slice of life from the late 19th century / early 20th century - with a museum of rural life planned as an added attraction.

It is still a functioning farm using horses as the prime motive power but the old Ferguson TE20 (circa 1952) still gets pressed into service when the need arises. We have to admit to using a modern combine to harvest the bulk of our grain but we will still do one field the hard way using scythes and making stooks – visitors are always welcome to lend a hand. We also build one or two hayricks in the traditional manner and again visitors are welcome to help.

The Park has a number of horses, ranging from heavy draught to ponies and donkeys. Some of these are older animals and are now retired, but many are still working horses.

We hope that all our visitors will enjoy their visit to our Open Day and come again.

Important Notice

Visitors dogs are not allowed in the Park. Please use the kennels we provide by the pedestrian entrance rather than leave them in your car. Each kennel has a lock and a member of staff keeps a check on them.

Visitors are reminded that all animals can be potentially dangerous.
Do not enter any of the fields unless invited to do so by a member of staff.
Do not feed any animal unless invited to do so by a member of staff
Horses can kick or bite so please exercise caution when passing nearby especially around the forge.
The Park can accept no liability for injury or damage other than as a result of negligence on the part of its personnel, owners or authorised officials.

Events This Weekend

Tractor Rally - All the tractors will be gathered in the showground by the Museum in the morning.

Parade of Horses - heavy horses, various farm carts and equipment. will be parading through the Park

Demonstration of horse drawn ploughing in the field in front of the forge. Comet and Cupid our matching pair of plough horses will be showing their skills along with Ben Anderson.
This will be dependant on the weather. 10.30 am and 2.30 pm

Tractor Rides -One of the tractors will be available to take visitors for trailer rides around the Park after the Rally. Trip will include the windmill.

Horse & Cart rides - Bonnie, the bay and Clyde,the Piebald, will be taking it in turns during the day to take the old “Tumbrel” cart on a tour of the Park. For the comfort of our visitors straw bales have been put in for seats. A proper seat has been fitted for driver Graham's comfort.
Jasper will be drawing the milk cart and Juniper,one of our light horses, will be taking short trips.
Please note all carts have bales for seats. These were working carts meant to carry things and not people. .

Farriers at work - The Hart brothers will be shoeing in the morning while blacksmith George Watson will be demonstrating his metal working skills all day.

Dairymaids at work - Various demonstrations during the day. Hand milking starts around 10.00 am and also at 4.00 pm. Mrs Watson will be in the dairy demonstrating her varied skills included churning butter all day. Visitors are welcome to assist.

Sheep Dogs - Shepherd Frank will give a demonstration with his dogs at 11.30 am and at 3.30 pm in the field in front of the milking shed

Feed the lambs some of the younger animals are in the children's area. The lambs will be fed several times during the day and children may be invited to help.

The Forge

The old forge is one of the original buildings which has been refurbished and re-roofed to comply with Health and Safety legislation.

An essential member of the staff is George Watson, a retired engineer, who now is the Park’s resident blacksmith. George not only restored the Park’s two original tractors which were both found as abandoned wrecks behind the old barn (now the home of the museum) but also makes and repairs the equipment. George can make a plough share or a shovel, horse shoes or fire irons - anything that can be crafted from metal. He has even made hanging baskets and planters. Some of his work can be purchased from the shop next to the Museum.

The farriers working in the forge during the open days are both working farriers. Brothers John and Peter Hart travel around the county during the week looking after the feet of the equine population but on special days come to the Park and tend to both our own horses and any others that local people bring along so that visitors can see them at work. Shoeing horses is a skilled and dangerous job. Some farriers will work with the horse tethered but some prefer the animal to be held as it keeps them calm if they are nervous.

The Old Dairy

Like the forge the dairy and the attached storehouse is original with its steep pitched roof and dropped floor. Visitors can watch a demonstration of butter making at certain times but the Old Dairy is no longer in full use as it does not comply with EEC and environment health regulations.

Most of the milk produced is used by a local cheese maker who needs unpasteurised milk to make his specialist cheeses and so all our animals are subjected to stringent testing on a regular basis.

There is a notice outside the dairy which says:-

All boots to be removed OUTSIDE
Use those inside
Inside boots NOT to be taken outside

The Dairy was a place where hygiene came first, everything inside was scrubbed daily, kettles of boiling water would be poured over the surfaces, including the floor and only certain people would be allowed inside. It was built to be cold, even in the summer, and the windows face north or west.

Look inside the Dairy and you will see the work tops where the milk is cooled in pans and left for the cream to rise. This cream would be churned into butter or used to make cheese. The dairy is near the well, which is deep and even colder than the dairy. Butter from the churn would be made into blocks using butter pats, wrapped, put into a dairy metal bucket and lowered down the well to harden.

The milkman used to deliver fresh ilk around the village. No milk bottles in those days so you had to take your own jug to be filled.
Nothing is wasted. The skimmed- and butter-milk is used for cooking, and the surplus, along with unsold milk, is fed to the animals – calves, orphan lambs and pigs.

The Milking Shed/Byre

The milking shed is a new building but built in the old style. The flooring slabs are old ones that we have reclaimed from the original cow byre which is a ruin with only the back wall still intact. We have plans to rebuild it with cob and flint but that is for the future. The milkmaids of old would be very pleased with the location of the new building as it is closer to the dairy. Milk would have been carried in buckets hanging on a yoke and with a bucketful from each cow at every milking and at least six cows in milk at any one time it would have meant several trips twice a day for one milkmaid.

Cows enter for milking in strict order – the lead cow goes in first and others follow in order, usually the older cows before younger, but not always. If there is no room they wait for one to leave. Apart from being milked they also get food – another reason for getting in first.

Alongside the cow byre is the calf shed where the very young calves are hand-reared. Older calves are in the field opposite along with other cattle.

People & Crafts

George Blunt, the milkman with the cart, is one of the member of the local Living History Group, who enjoy dressing up in period clothes and make our open days really special. He is not actually selling milk but you can buy our own ice-cream from him.

In the craft workshops you will find a carpenter (who is also a wheelwright), a cooper, and a potter, among others – all professionals making goods for sale. The workshops are open most days, even when the Heritage Park is closed.

The shepherd, Frank Fields, is a permanent member of staff as the farm has about 300 breeding ewes requiring care and attention. Frank takes his job seriously but loves dressing up! His assistant, Fred Harris, is a retired shepherd who lives in one of the Park cottages and is an expert on how things used to be. Fred has come out of retirement and taken on the job of finding some of the old breeds for us.

Our dairy maids are also members of staff. Jenny Fisher, Maddy Holt and Jenny Martin look after the smaller animals, geese, chickens and ducks as well as helping with the cows and giving demonstrations of butter-making. Jenny Martin also tends our pigs which are “free-range” and have proved useful in clearing some of the scrubland for us. Currently the breeding sows are in the orchard with their offspring and the others are in and around the wood. All our pigs are moved around the farm to give them a variety of diets and to prevent too much damage to each area.

The Museum

This is an old timber barn which we are still renovating and already houses our collection of tractors and equipment, mostly still in working order
Once the work on the building is completed it will house not only the tractors and farm equipment but also the tools and implements of the past. Butter churns, butter pats, washing dollies and suchlike

The museum has just opened to the public.

The Exhibits

The Ferguson TE20 and the Fordson with the solid wheels and spikes are the two original tractors in the collection. Both were discovered behind the barn that is now the museum in pieces and mostly gone to rust. Both have been restored to full working capability but the Fordson rarely goes out as the spiked wheels do appalling damage to our roads. We take it out occasionally on a special trailer and only allow it to run under its own power once it is on grass.

George Watson worked wonders on these two old wrecks and mostly rebuilt the dump rake which a chainsaw found buried under an overgrown hedge. (George also repaired the chainsaw). Since then the Park has acquired several old tractors which local enthusiasts helped to renovate. By way of thanks these enthusiasts, Norm Banks, Pete Smith, Frank Fields (our shepherd), Nick Moore and Jim Lake get to drive them out occasionally. So if you see a convoy of old tractors on a Sunday morning trundling along the byways you know who they are.

We have tractors made by David Brown, Ferguson, Fordson, Lanz, MAN, Marshall, and Porsche. We also have some early machines – the dump rake mentioned earlier, a potato harvester, two different hay lifters/turners, a horse-drawn single blade plough, a horse-drawn roller and a log wagon. Some of this machinery will be seen working on some of our open days next year and we are hoping to add a threshing machine.

The Well

The well is a real one and is used. The grille over the top has been added to ensure public safety as it is about 100 feet deep. The forge and dairy both need water so it is not remarkable that these buildings are in close proximity. In the old days water for the house would be drawn from this same well and carried to the kitchen in buckets. Nowadays .the house is supplied by pipes

There is also a hand pump in the stable yard to water the horses - very important.

The Stable Yard

This is a working area and visitors are not permitted except when on a guided tour.

We hope you enjoy your visit and look forward to seeing you again

Leakey Vale Heritage Park
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