Where can you find stories of countesses and fighting monks, country craftsmen and farmers all in a magical setting of ancient walls and peaceful stone ruins?

The answer is that they are all brought alive at the Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey, near Waterbeach, Cambs. The site has been farmed for over 2000 years, right up to the 1950s.

• The Museum started out as bits of broken pottery kept in a shoebox by four-year-old Craig Delanoy in 1969.
• The collection grew and after being in the Delanoy's garden until the early 1990s it opened in March 1997 at its current Denny Abbey site.
• The collection, which now consists of over eight thousand objects, focuses on the farming of the region.

NEW GUIDEBOOK

• A new clourful guidebook has been published by English Heritage telling the story of the Abbey and the Museum which is now available for purchase in the gift shop.

• Objects on display - which include photographs, machinery and tools of rural crafts and industries - were made and used by Cambridgeshire people.
• There is a stunning 17th century barn, that has been very carefully restored, which houses display on different aspects of farming such as root crops, cereals and fruit growing.
• Walnut Tree Cottage probably dates from the 1860s and was occupied by farmworkers until the 1960s. It has been furnished to represent a typical farm labourer's home of the late 1940s.
• Renovated pigsheds contain a dairy, blacksmith's shop, fenman's hut and basketmaker's workshop. There is also a Wheelwright's workshop and a village shop from the early-mid 20th century.
• While the expert will doubtless enjoy all the equipment and machinery in its own right we have also tried to make it accessible to the increasing numbers of people, especially the younger generation, who are not familiar with farming.
• Thus the younger museum visitor can also enjoy the many hands on activities and entertaining interactives on site.

Denny Abbey is unique in
that it is the only religious
site in England to have been occupied at various times by three different monastic orders.

Denny Abbey

• Today it is an architectural jigsaw of windows, blocked doorways and arches. Inside, the pieces begin to fit together as visitors stand in the crossing of a 12th century Benedictine church.
• Denny was home to Benedictine monks for only ten years from 1159 until it was handed over to the Knights Templars. For this mysterious religious order, known as the 'fighting monks' because of their commitment to protecting pilgrims to the Holy Lane, the Abbey was a home for aged and infirm members of the order.
• By 1308 the Templars had fallen out of favour with the king and on January 10th of that year they were arrested, taken to Cambridge Castle and then to the Tower of London.
• The third religious order to occupy Denny Abbey was that of Franciscan nuns, otherwise known as Poor Clares. Their founder, the Countess of Pembroke, converted the original church into her own private apartments and built a new church, a refectory, dormitory, cloisters and other buildings which have not survived.
• The 14th and 15th century would have seen a bustling Denny - home to nuns and several chaplains. At that time, Abbeys were not only religious centres but also the occupants were also managers of large agricultural estates. There would have been a considerable community here that would have included servants and farm workers.
• The Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 signalled the end of religious life at Denny; two years later, all the nuns had left. The Countess of Pembroke's apartments and the refectory survived as they could be converted for farm use - the rest was destroyed.
• The estate subsequently passed through the hands of many generations of farmers until the early 20th century, when Pembroke College acquired it and placed it in the care of the Ministry of Works, now English Heritage.