The Weald and Downland Living Museum is on a forty acre site at the pretty village of Singleton, Sussex, seven miles north of Chichester. Visitors can examine the collection of more than fifty historic buildings. The Museum was founded by the late Dr. J. R. Armstrong MBE and opened to the public in September 1970. It is a registered charity supported by many volunteers. There is a cafe open to the general public. Dogs are allowed in the grounds on short leads.
The Museum rescues and preserves buildings of architectural and historical interest, from South East England. The retention of buildings on their original site is encouraged, unless there is no alternative but to bring the building to Singleton. There are houses and agricultural, craft, industrial and school buildings. These tell the story of the people who lived and worked in them over a thousand year period. There is a replica of an Anglo-Saxon Hall House from 950 AD, which was constructed from archaeological evidence gained from a site in Steyning, West Sussex. In 2011, the Museum obtained a pre-fabricated corrugated iron building used by the residents of South Wonston, near Winchester. It had been used by them since 1908 as St. Margarets Mission Church. The Museum has also acquired the medieval Market Hall from Titchfield in Hampshire.
As would be expected, the buildings in the Museum have been used for television and film locations. The BBC2 series, The Repair Shop, was filmed in 2017, using the Court Barn and the Victorian Smithy. The 2015 comedy feature film, Bill, starring Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis and the teams from Horrible Histories and Yonderland, used the Museum as the home town of Bill Shakespeare.
