FAQs

We have two admissions areas at the Museum, one in the Museum shop accessed from the upper car park and the other at the rear accessed from the lower car park.

The number of visitors expected on each day dictates which admissions area and car park will be in use. Signage will direct you on arrival.

Please note: our disabled parking is located in our upper car park, to the left of the Museum entrance.

You can pre-book online and save!

Or alternatively tickets can be purchased on the day of your visit in our Museum shop at the general admission prices.

On busier days, we do recommend pre-booking to guarantee entry, as our ticket spaces are dependent of our car parking capacity.

When pre-booking you can choose an entry time that suits you and once you’re at the Museum you can stay as long as you like! Please note that the last admission time is 2 hours prior to the seasonal closing time.

Alternatively, you can call the Museum on 01243 811363 for advice.

Pre-booked tickets are booked to a specified date, and entry will be permitted after the time slot stated on your ticket. This is just to help us manage the flow of visitors arriving at the Museum. Once at the Museum however, you can stay as long as you like until closing time.

The Museum is open from the 2 January to the 23 December.

From the 1 March to 31 October – The Museum is open from 10am until 5pm (last admission entry at 3pm)

For all other dates the Museum is open from 10am until 4pm (last admission entry at 2pm)

We operate a last admission entry 2 hours prior to the Museum closing.

The main reason for this is for the health & safety of our visitors, volunteers and staff. As a large 40 acre open air museum in a rural landscape, to allow our visitors to explore the Museum with plenty of time, we do not permit admission tickets or members to enter the Museum after the stated last admission time.

During the winter months this is especially important, as we do not have electricity around the whole site and it can become dark from 3pm onwards.

Any visitor/member arriving after the last entry time will not be permitted entry to the Museum. So please plan your visit to allow you to arrive at the Museum with plenty of time to explore.

Once at the Museum, you can take your time to explore the 40-acre site, with over 50 buildings and homes to explore alongside an extensive woodland.

Each day a team of staff and volunteers work across the Museum to share their passion, knowledge and enthusiasm with you, so do stop for a chat!

On any given day, teams of staff and volunteers will be keeping our working buildings in action – such as our watermill and Victorian blacksmiths; others will be toiling in our historic gardens, providing demonstrations or simply there to welcome you to the Museum and tell you its history.

Our buildings are part of an Arts Council Designated collection. To ensure their best possible care, some of our larger houses are stewarded. At these homes, you’ll find a house steward who can tell you all about the building and the history of the people who lived in it. They are also there to regulate the number of visitors inside the building at any one time. Our stewarded houses close approximately 1 hour before the Museum closes.

The Repair Shop is filmed on location at the Museum, the Museum itself is not involved with the production. Visit this page more information on how to contact The Repair Shop

Whilst they are filming onsite the area around Court Barn is closed to the public, but you may get to see them in action from a distance.

During selected dates of the year we are permitted access to host ‘Sneak Peek’ dates to the barn, these dates can be seen on our what’s on page.

We have information about accessibility on our accessibility page where you can find information about arrival and finding your way around the Museum.

Please note: Due to the size and nature of the Museum site, we offer a disabled and carer ticket for those who feel their disability will affect their ability to visit the whole Museum.

We can accommodate a small number motorhomes in our main car park at the Museum, which does depend on how many coaches we have booked in, or the length of your vehicle.

If you can contact the Museum prior to your planned visit between the hours of 10am – 4pm, the day before or on the day of your visit, so we can advise if we will have space for your larger vehicle.

Please note: we cannot permit motor homes or any vehicle to be left over night in the Museum car park. 

We do not have electric car charging points in our car park.

This is something we are looking into offering in the future.

We have a small bike rack available in our main car park to the left as you enter the Museum site. Please do lock your bike up in the bike racks provided.

We ask politely that cyclists do not leave their bikes propped up outside the shop and café area. This not only cause accessibility issues for our disabled visitors, but can also cause health and safety risks in the event of a fire, or with some of our younger visitors there is a risk of a unattended bike causing injury. 

Ready to book your tickets? Click here

During the winter season we encourage all non-members to pre-book tickets before arrival. As we have limited parking in our car park during the winter season and we want to make sure that we can accommodate all visitors comfortably.

Museum members do not need to pre-book a ticket.

Dogs are welcome and can enter most of the Museum’s buildings with the exceptions of the watermill, Newdigate bakehouse, Dairy and Winkhurst Tudor kitchen, where food is prepared.

Dogs are also welcome in our designated ‘Dog Friendly’ section of our café which is located at the far end and the associated decking area.

All we ask is if you could please respect other visitors and our animals onsite (horses, sheep, pigs, wildfowl and our roaming chickens), by keeping your dog on a short lead and under control at all times – extendable and/or flexi leads are NOT PERMITTED onsite. Please be prepared with a short lead up to 1.2 meters in length. If you require a short lead, they are available to purchase from our Museum shop.

If you’re having trouble buying tickets online, this may be for one of a few reasons:

Basket timing out – When buying via our website, your items will be held in your basket for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the system releases the items, as it assumes the items are no longer wanted.

Payment timing out – once you go through to the payment screen, this takes you to SagePay, our online payment vendor. Payments need to be completed within 15 minutes, after this time the payment will expire and you will need to start the process again.

Incomplete card information – If your CV2 number (3 digits on the back of your payment card) is not entered with your card details, the transaction will not complete.

Closing the payment window too early – if you refresh or close the window or browser after you’ve entered your payment details but before you’ve had confirmation of your payment, the transaction will not go through.

If you continue to have trouble, do give the team a call. If we can’t answer at the time, do leave us a message and we’ll call you back as soon as we can.

If you have a complimentary pass you cannot use this online.

Please just turn up with your complimentary pass to redeem at our admissions desk. We do recommended arriving early on busier days to guarantee entry, as our visitor numbers are restricted to our car parking capacity (especially in the winter months).

Please note: Complimentary tickets are not valid for ticketed events, or events outside of the Museum standard opening hours.

If you have been gifted a gift visit to the Museum, you can redeem your gift ticket on arrival at the admissions desk in our Museum gift shop. The voucher can only be redeemed for the same ticket type as shown on the voucher and cannot be exchanged or refunded.

Please note: Gift vouchers are valid for 12 months from purchase, if you have not used your voucher within the expiry date, we are not able to extend the voucher. 

Tickets are non-refundable even if unredeemed. However, if you have bought a ticket and know in advance that you are unable to use it, we will do our best to move your visit to a future date. We are not able to move tickets after the date of visit as they have expired.

Please email us in advance (office@wealddown.co.uk) with your booking reference and the date to which you would like to move your visit.

 If you are arriving by coach, please email groupbooking@wealddown.co.uk or phone us on 01243 811363 with the following information:

· The date you would like to visit

· The number of people in your group

· Estimated time of arrival

If you are not arriving by coach, you can book your tickets online here. Your party must be at least 10 people in one transaction to qualify for our group rates.

For more information on group booking, please click here

For any school group booking enquiries, please contact the schools team on schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk. or 01243 811459

Lifelong learning has been at the heart of the Museum’s aims since its founding over 40 years ago.

If you would like to browse our courses or make a booking, please click here.

if you would like to contact us please email courses@wealddown.co.uk and we will respond as soon as possible.

If you need to contact the Museum, please email office@wealddown.co.uk or call 01243 811363. Alternatively, a list of staff members and contact details can be found at on our Department Contacts page

Please do leave a message if you can’t get through and we will return your call as soon as possible.

For standard entry dates and events, Members do not need to pre-book. All activities included in your membership are identified by the membership icon on the relevant what’s on event page. We will notify members if there are limited tickets for an event or activity, on these occasions members may have to pre-book a members ticket. Events and activities outside the standard entry dates and times are not included in the Museum annual memberships.

Members are welcome to visit at any time and will simply need to present your valid membership card at the admissions desk on arrival.

Please note that members must also adhere to the last admission time of 2 hours prior to the seasonal closing time – please read information on why we have a last admission time above. 

Absolutely!  Members are the foundation to our financial stability and we’re very grateful for your support.

We appreciate that circumstances change, and you may not be able to continue to support us and thus remain as a member. Memberships can only be cancelled at the end of your current membership year.

Please note: if you have a direct debit membership, this is still an annual membership plan. Your membership can only be cancelled at the end of your 12 monthly payments.

If your membership is due for renewal you are able to cancel it from the renewal date. Please email membership@wealddown.co.uk if you would like to cancel.

You can get in touch with the membership team by email membership@wealddown.co.uk or phone 01243 811010.

Please note that the membership office is open Monday – Friday 9am – 3pm. Please do leave a message if your call isn’t answered (as we may be on another call). The team will get back to you as soon as possible

For more Membership FAQ’s please visit here

If you would like to donate to the Museum you can do that:

Online – you can make a donation online here

Your unrestricted gift allows us to direct the funds where the need is greatest, be that the care of our collection, our conservation work or care of our animals.

By cheque – if you’d like to donate by cheque, please make it payable to: the Weald & Downland Living Museum and send or the attention of: Fundraising, Weald & Downland Living Museum, Town Lane, West Sussex, PO18 0EU

Leaving a gift in your will – Leaving a gift in your will is one of the most significant ways you can support and ensures the Museum’s preservation for future generations. If you would like to discuss leaving a gift in your will, we can help. You can get in touch by email: fundraising@wealddown.co.uk or phone: 01243 811363

If you would like to give a gift towards a specific area of the Museum or to discuss other ways to support, we’d love to hear from you. You can email us at fundraising@wealddown.co.uk or call on 01243 811363

Yes! We have several options for couples wanting to get married at the Museum. Take a look at our wedding pages for more information here or get in touch by email at venuehire@wealddown.co.uk or phone 01243 811032

The Museum has a Working Animals Supervisor who cares for our animals with the support from a team of volunteers.

We have a number of seasonal traditional farm animals at the Museum, which can include:

• Working heavy horses
• Saddleback pigs
• Southdowns sheep
• Chickens & Geese
• Wild ducks

Yes. Depending on the nature, size and scope of the project we welcome tv and film crews at the Museum. If you would like to use the Museum as a location for your production, please contact the team by email venuehire@wealddown.co.uk or by phone 01243 811032

The café and shop are open to both Museum visitors and to the general public.

Both are dog friendly (Dogs are welcome in the far end section of our café and its outdoor deck area).

The café is open daily 10am – 4pm in the winter season, and 10am – 5pm in the summer season.

The shop is open daily 10:30am – 4pm in the winter season, and 10am – 5pm in the summer season.

Our café menu’s available are:

• Breakfast 10am to 11.15am
• Light lunches 11.30am to 3.00pm
• Hot lunches 12noon to 3.00pm

Please note: the café kitchen closes at 3pm, after this we serve hot drinks and light snacks.

Museum milled flour can be purchased from our gift shop and café.

(The mill is currently undertaking repairs, therefore we currently have no flour available to buy until further notice. For any enquiries please all 01243 811020)

Yes, we have made buying gifts from the Museum even easier with our online gift shop!

Each purchase directly supports the Museum, our activities and conservation work.

Click here to visit our online shop!