Where is it? Just off the A10 near Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire
How much? £4.00 Adults/£1.70 Children for Abbey and Museum
Who owns it? Joint venture between English Heritage and the museum.
Links: www.dennyfarmlandmuseum.org.uk
www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.12022
What is it?
Denny Abbey was originally founded in 1159 as a Benedictine Monastery. It was later used by the Knights Templar as Knightly retirement flats until the order was suppressed in 1308. After the knights had been thrown out, the abbey passed to the Countess of Pembroke who converted part into a house and gave the rest as a convent for the Poor Clare order of nuns of BBC's The Convent fame.
In 1539, Henry VIII came along and dissolved the abbey as he was doing throughout the length and breadth of the country, and the buildings passed into use as farm buildings – which they have remained to this day.
The site now houses a museum of rural life and farming as well as the reasonably extensive ruins of the abbey, much of which was actually saved by its conversion into housing and farm buildings.
Value For Money: * * * * *
The entrance fee covers both the substantial museum and the abbey ruins. A lot for your money.
Educational Value: * * * *
If you come out of here and there’s something you still don’t know about farming life in Cambridgeshire, you weren’t reading everything! The museum entertains as well as educates with reconstructed areas and lots of hands on exhibits.
Tucked away in one corner of the site is a fully kitted out Victorian cottage where you can go and see how them country folk really used to live. Very interesting and, again, hands-on stuff for the kids.
The abbey tour is informative, but not quite as enthusiastic as the farm museum. You’ll still learn a lot, but there’s a lot of standing around reading panels. There are some interactive displays for the children (build an arch/stained glass window) but the one about abbey life has had a lot of the pieces pinched!
Interest Value: * * * *
There’s a lot to see and do here. We spent the best part of an hour making the stained glass window, but that probably says more about our glazing skills than anything else! You can easily spend an afternoon at Denny Abbey in the museum alone, and there’s plenty of picnic areas and a café if you want to make a day of it.
Overall: * * * *
Denny Abbey and Farmland Museum does exactly what it says on the label. It’s good, solid hands-on fun which sits neatly between the stuffy everything-in-a-box type of museum and the colourful touch-me-ride-me-feel-me of those little places that think they’re Disneyland. A little bit more on the abbey side wouldn’t have gone amiss but a good day out nevertheless!