As part of a weekend break at Skegness, we visited the Church Farm Museum which is part of the Lincolnshire Museums collection. This venue aims to provide an insight into life and conditions on a small farm in the Lincolnshire area from about the 1700s through to the 1950s.

The first thing one saw on entering the museum (£1 per person admission fee) was a traction engine and reversible plough. Alongside is a rebuilt farm worker's thatched cottage showing the type of construction used until brick became more widely available for domestic buildings in the 1800s. Although giving the impression of an idyllic setting, conditions inside are very primitive with uneven earth floors, ladder type stairs and small windows, although these are glazed. The building is minimally furnished, reflecting the bare necessities and no luxuries of the farm labourer of the period.

The farmhouse across the way however is a different story, reflecting the period of the early 1900s, with separate dairy, kitchen and wash-house, all fully furnished with the tools and gadgets of the period. The main living rooms have rag rug floor coverings, cast iron fireplaces and range, and offer comfortable living for the period. Upstairs, the maid-cum-nanny has her own, albeit cramped, bedroom under the back eaves, where she would have been responsible for looking after the children in the nursery-bedroom alongside.

Outside, a serious of outbuildings have been converted to display blacksmith, wheelwright, tinsmith and other trade's tools, but these suffer from being in rooms, maybe old stables, that are not big enough to display the items as they would have been used. However, the old cowshed and a couple of other outbuildings are more spacious, displaying a range of animal related items, from chicken husbandry to pig-keeping, etc. The next room belonged to more arable-related items, being devoted to potato harvesting. One highlight for me here was the Bamford open-crank stationary engine. Next-door was a collection of machinery devoted to the Bentall make, being chaff-cutter, cattle cake mill, amongst others.

Outside was a range of horse and tractor items, for example, ploughs, cultivator, reaper, hay-turner etc, with a late 1950s Fordson Major tractor hiding at the back. The tractor collection was a big disappointment for me as when I visited five or so years ago, I'm sure there was at least half-a-dozen or so in residence. Now there was only the Major and two grey Fergusons, of which many are still in everyday use on small-holdings etc., and are not of great interest to the enthusiast looking for something fresh. Perhaps others are removed for the summer to attend rallies, but as the Museum is only open from Easter to early October, this seems to be a major omission.

Out around the back of the tea room barn, was a collection of horse drawn implements, and then a wooden barn housing the threshing drum, one of the grey Fergies and 3 more stationary engines. Again, these were disappointing, being only a couple of Lister Ds and a Ruston Hornsby PB, very common engines.

Alongside the tea room was an open cart "hovel" with a very well-presented 4-wheel farm wagon and above both this and the tea-room are exhibition galleries, suitable for use by school parties and the like. As an educational venue, it is very good but for the vintage enthusiast it is a pleasant but unexciting afternoon out.