Down on the farm

Both ladies, said Francesca Jones, the museum's acting manager, are thought to be in pig, so their offspring will be an extra attraction if the museum is given the go-ahead by its owner, Oxfordshire County Council, to reopen for a trial period on March 18 this year.

Great public consternation at the threatened closure of this living museum in Witney, which re-creates in absorbing detail a farmstead of the late 1800s, has resulted in the suggestion of a three-part rescue package, currently being considered by the county council.

The well-publicised fear that the site could be sold for housing development appears to be groundless. "For one thing," said Francesca, "the land is a Scheduled Ancient Monument,the house is grade 2* listed and the farm buildings grade 2 listed. Also, we're in a flood plain. Last year, the Windrush flooded the fields as far as the ox byre - we had to take all the cattle off site, and move the sheep and horses to higher ground."

The museum's importance as an educational facility for residents and tourists, adults and children, alike, rests in several different areas. The long story of the site itself has much to offer those interested in local history, and its relationship to national events.

An archaeological survey was carried out with the restoration of the Manor House in 1994, during which diggers discovered post holes of a Saxon weaving hut under the floor of the parlour. The Domesday Book and the Bayeux Tapestry record a Lord of the Manor of Cogges called Wadard, who was succeeded by the Arsic family, builders of a moated Manor House near the river.

This was sensibly replaced in the 1400s by a new owner, Walter de Grey, who constructed a house on the present, higher, site, which has been altered and extended over succeeding centuries. It has been in the hands of, amongst others, Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford, and the Blake family, who were involved in the Witney blanket industry during the 1600s.

In the 18th century it was let as a rather short-lived school at which, according to an advertisement posted by the Master (to counteract exaggerated reports of his death put out by a rival establishment): YOUNG GENTLEMEN are inftructed in Merchants Accounts, and the Nature of Foreign Exchanges; French, Drawing, Dancing, and other Branches of polite Education, fuited to the Pupil's Genius and Capacity, on moderate Terms.' The Victorian Mawle family, on whose life and farming practices the museum is based, rented, and later bought, the farm from the Harcourt estate. Their descendant John Mawle sold the 20-acre site to the county council in 1974 - the family still supports the museum and leases it land for grazing.

Visitors see both the agricultural and domestic work of the manor. As well as the rare breeds of pig, there are types of fowl that would have been kept in the Mawles' time, a shorthorn cattle herd, and two local sorts of sheep, Oxford Down and Cotswold - the famous lion'. The museum thus contributes to the breeding stock of these less common varieties as a byproduct of its educational enterprise.

"We came second in 2007 in the Cotswold Sheep Society's national competition for Best in Breed" said Francesca, "and only missed coming first by one point! In the summer visitors can watch the sheep being sheared, and wool being spun, and we are planning a series of animal-handling sessions.

"There's also hand-milking of the cows and butter-making going on most days in the old farm buildings.

"When the Mawle family left, many of these buildings still had their original features - there were working stables, and hunter stables, with the old mangers, and a thatched ox byre. There is also an orchard and a fantastic walled kitchen garden, with a stunning lavender walk. You can meet the gardener, who grows the kinds of fruit and vegetables that were available to Victorian farmers."

The opportunity to talk to farmhands or housemaids about their work is a much-valued aspect of the museum. All wear period costume, accurate in its detail so that, for example, onlookers can differentiate the upstairs' maids, who wear flat caps with streamers, from the downstairs' employees in their mobcaps.

Visiting children can also be provided with Victorian costume, and take on the roles of boot boys and scullery maids.

"They find out what it's like to meet the exacting standards of a housekeeper," said Francesca. "And they have the chance to cook on the range in the kitchen, under supervision, and do laundry using a copper and a dolly, and a mangle."

Several other rooms are laid out and equipped in Victorian fashion, including a pantry, and the pay office where Joseph Mawle's labourers received their weekly wage.

On the first floor, there is an interpretation room' which houses a do-it-yourself model of the manor in its many reincarnations, and an eclectic display of things found under the floorboards' - the rat skeleton, bone combs and plastic Magic Roundabout figure take your imagination on a dizzying trip through the house's history in the space of a few moments.

The museum supplies a useful pack for teachers, and has a full programme at weekends, featuring exciting events such as a demonstration of steam-powered threshing.

"There's also a traditional scarecrow built in the barn every year by a former member of staff," said Francesca. "It takes about a week because the straw has to be woven together to make it solid."

The level of support from volunteers such as those involved in these two events, and from the Cogges Trust and general public, has been very heartening to the museum staff.

"There's a loyal band of workers waiting to see if they can come back at Easter - we all appreciate that things have to change if we want to carry on, but we just hope we are given the opportunity to do so."

Cogges Manor Farm Museum, Church Lane, Witney, OX28 3LA. Call 01993 772602 or visit the website: www.cogges.org