For 25 years Chiltern Open Air Museum has taken visitors on a journey back in time. Reporter VICTORIA BIRCH took a step back when she visited the museum as it celebrates its silver jubilee.

IMAGINE if you could go back in time to see exactly how people lived hundreds of years ago.

You might want to experience an Iron Age house, pray in a Mission Room, or spend a few moments in a 14th century timber building.

For those who don't have access to a time machine, the next best thing must be the Chiltern Open Air Museum.

The museum, in Gorelands Lane, Chalfont St Giles, has been taking visitors on historical journeys for the last 25 years. It has more than 30 period buildings on show on its 45 acre site.

Creating the past is not an easy task for museum volunteers who dismantle the old buildings at their present locations before moving them to the museum. Once there, they are painstakingly pieced together like a jigsaw.

Their most popular building, the Amersham prefab, was once used by a family who lived on the Finch Lane Estate, Amersham. The detail is excellent, with the traditional vegetable garden out in the backyard, and rose bushes in the front garden. There are also pieces of classic 1940s furniture inside, including a copy of the Radio Times.

Janet Ahlberg, the head of education and visitor services at the museum, said: "It was built in 1946 and people lived in it until 1986. It was owned by the Brant family who still go back to visit it, and they checked it for us to make sure we had got it right.

"Lots of people loved them. They were kit-form buildings. They helped the housing shortage after the Second World War. You could have one up in ten days. It was instant housing.

Mrs Ahlberg said they were able to furnish it for free, adding: "We put an appeal in the local papers and it's amazing what people have in their attics and they gave all of it to us. A lot of the stuff is becoming very collectable".

The museum is still looking to put more buildings on its land.

She said: "There is lots of space for further development. There are 14 buildings still in store and they are in the form of timber and bricks. We are waiting for money and time.

"Some have been in pieces for a very long time. We have a very big 13th century barn from St Albans and it is going to take about £500,000 to do it. It will be the piece de resistance. That kind of money comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund."

She said these days it is becoming more difficult for buildings to be donated as they are often protected, and many are costly.

She said: "From our point of view the museum was set up to raise awareness, and to keep the value of buildings and to look to work with local people to see if we can help them to keep the buildings. Moving them here is the last resort, and we don't always have the funds to preserve them."

They have a range of history in their grounds including a Mission Room, a tin church built in 1886, a Toll House from High Wycombe and an Iron Age House, as a place for storytelling for children. The organisers create an atmosphere by lighting candles and a fire.

Mrs Ahlberg said: "The atmosphere is wonderful. What we find is that when we light the fire, the smoke comes up and the spiders come down.

"The children usually scream when they see them. We have had a few problems because we didn't have a fire burning during March, and squirrels started taking the straw from the roof.

"Most of the work is done by volunteers, and there are only five paid members of staff."

Mrs Ahlberg said: "They do it for the love of it. They are the best people in the whole world! Some volunteers always like to do the same thing, but some want to learn new skills so they will take part in the rebuilding. We couldn't function without volunteers."

Money comes from visitors, the Friends of the Museum do fundraising ventures, and funds come from Buckinghamshire County Council and Chiltern District Council. They are also given funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and from other grants.

She said: "We apply for tons and tons of those and get some."

The museum struggled when the foot and mouth crisis started. It was closed for a few months as they have animals on the site.

The museum was started by friends concerned with the loss of buildings in the area.

Mrs Ahlberg said: "They went to visit an open air museum in Sussex and they thought why don't we do this? It was a very brave thing to do. They had no land and no money. They found this site, which was half of this size, and it was rented from Bucks County Council.

"They descended on a barn in Chalfont St Peter and it was all dismantled. It was opened to the public in 1981 with three buildings. It was run by volunteers until 1986 when the first paid member of staff was employed."

For more details on the museum call 01494 871117.