MUSEUM VISIT

The Bygones museum has been created by Andrew Fox at Butlin Farm Claydon. It is easily accesed from the South Oxford Canal at bridge 145 and a walk of just a mile into the village will take you back in time.
The museum overlooks adjoining farm land and the views are fantastic. Also on site is a gift shop and a licenced restaurant.
Andrew Fox has gathered this wonderful collection of items from our past, and i saw tools that my dad had when i was a boy, from towns and villages in scrapyards and old stables, barns, attics, cellars and what were once thriving tradesmens workshops that like so many of our past skills have gone to sleep and to the far east!

Above is the old Granary now home to amongst many things a large collection of old Typewriters and Telex machines, that hit a note as my late wife Valerie was a Telex operator for Kodak that also springs up in a picture below.

Above rows of old shops have been re-created in one building at the museum and the windows of each shop are filled with the goods they sold as in the photographers window below. Also in yet another building that was once a milking parlour for 16 cows several different scenes are created and below is a 1920`s kitchen/scullery and other rooms include a carpenters workshop, an electricians repair room with some wonderful old appliances you thought you would never see again. In all 6 scenes even a Boatbuilders workshop. In the Barn pictured below can be found a Traction engine, road roller and many farm tractors.
Next to the barn another building houses many stationery steam driven engines and a collection of old machinery of all types.Well i`m certainly glad i discovered the Bygones museum and it was well worth the £2.50 entrance and after a relaxing sit down with a coffee i was ready to walk back to the boat.