Heritage chalk

One of the treats we experienced while back home in the UK was a lovely visit to the Amberley Working Museum.

It’s a large open air museum on the site of the chalk pits that were in use from about 1830 – 1963. Nowadays, it houses a lot of items from the early Victorian era.

There is a printing workshop and a resident blacksmith at the forge.

There is a wheelwright, a stained glass maker, a potter and a walking-stick maker.

I also came across a Victorian version of a shoe shop: it was fascinating to see shoes and boots in the making.

There are vintage buses and beautiful glossy fire engines, looking like works of art on wheels.

Other beautifully crafted vehicles included these carts, made of weathered wood.

It was a relaxing break to go back in time to a slower era, to a time when great technological changes were about to make a breakthrough.

Or as the Victorian writer, Charles Dickens wrote:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us….”

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