Chiltern Open Air Museum

Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) is an independent open-air museum of vernacular buildings and a tourist attraction located near Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire.

The museum was founded in 1976 and opened to the public in 1981.

Its collection consists mainly of historic buildings which were at risk of demolition before being dismantled and reconstructed in the museum grounds.

Buildings of interest include: a 1940s prefab from Amersham; a reconstruction of an Iron Age house; a Victorian toll house from High Wycombe; a tin chapel from Henton, Oxfordshire; a forge from Garston, Hertfordshire; a pair of labourer's cottages from Leagrave, near Luton; a chair factory from High Wycombe; reconstructed WW1 and WW2 Nissen huts, and a wychert-style farmhouse from Haddenham.

The museum's collection also includes 16 buildings that are held in storage and await reconstruction, as and when the museum's funds permit.

The museum also offer hands-on activities and traditional skills experiences including blacksmithing, willow sculpting and weaving, straw plaiting, historic cooking, and folk singing, and is a location for many annual historical re-enactments and living history displays.

With its historic buildings, the museum has been used as a filming location for many TV and film productions, and has appeared in Mary Queen of Scots, Downton Abbey, Inside No 9, Call the Midwife, Grantchester, Midsommer Murders, Horrible Histories, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Bramwell, and Shine on Harvey Moon.

Taskmaster connection

Chiltern Open Air Museum was used for filming many location-based tasks in series 13 of Taskmaster UK.

First appearance

The location was first seen during the 'Tie a ribbon round the maypole or hit it with a ping pong ball' task, in the second episode of series 13.