The Museum is reopening on Sunday 5th April 2026 - Easter Sunday at 2.30pm
We will be open every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, 2.30pm-4.30pm until the end of October
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Our exhibition on East Hendred, the Second World War and the Harwell site will continue for a second year - many say it is our best yet - there is a lot to see and read so please make a visit or revisit
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Visit our Events page to find out about Open Gardens - Sunday 7th June 2026! A very popular event!
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The village museum at Champs Chapel will open its doors for this season with a second chance to see the remarkable exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2.
We focus on the villagers who went overseas to fight and the people who stayed here and played their part in the war. As a taster imagine this…
In the mid 1930s East Hendred was still a quiet agricultural village. Then in 1937 everything changed with the creation of the RAF Harwell Airbase on the eastern
edge of the parish. Originally built as a training unit, Harwell squadrons would go on to play significant frontline roles including in the D-day Landings and the Arnhem
operation.
Imagine blackouts, mandatory gas masks, reduced media output, a newly formed homeguard ready to defend the village from German invasion, evacuees, a
displaced persons camp. And with noisy busy skies, new tarmac runways in the ancient fields and airmen and airbase staff accommodated in the village. The war
must have felt very close to home.
And then after 1945 we look at the village recovery, those early years of austerity and new modern life. We show the redundant Harwell RAF airfield transform first into
Europe’s largest nuclear research centre and then into the Harwell Science and Innovation centre of today with its amazing world-leading technology and over 6000
people working there.
And if none of that draws you in, maybe the story of the world’s most dangerous spy, nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs and his connection with the village will!
‘The secret history of your street” project, now in its tenth year, has been an adventure in detective work. We are always uncovering new photographs, paintings, documents and objects. Those of us involved in the project see the annual summer exhibition as a gathering together of the previous year’s most exciting discoveries.
Currently we have privileged access to an incredible private archive of historical postcards dating back to the 1890s. The postcards have been digitally scanned to the highest quality allowing us to share with you unbelievably sharp and detailed images of life in Hendred through the last 130 years.
Huge amounts of work is also being done on the oral history of the village and every year we are very proud to be able to show off the fruits of this great project. Combining the oral project with the photographic collection of the Museum adds compelling depth to our exhibitions and we think that this year is no exception.
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