About the project

The Brook Rural Museum, managed by the Wye Rural Museum Trust, is a historic site in Kent that includes a Grade I listed medieval barn and Grade II listed Oast House, both integral to the village's agricultural heritage. Established in 1996, the museum houses a significant collection of Kentish agricultural artefacts. To secure its future and engage new audiences the Trust applied for a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for their project "Securing the future of the Brook Museum". This was followed by a second project, "Reaching out into our communities," building on their initial success.

"Securing the future of the Brook Museum" focused on strengthening collections management, increasing audience engagement through a new public programme of events and raising awareness of the museum.

This laid the groundwork for "Reaching out into our communities", which has continued to broaden the museum's impact across Ashford by enhancing the museum's visibility, building new partnerships with schools, care homes, and charities, and creating a sustainable business model for the museum. Planned activities include temporary exhibitions, reminiscence activities at local care homes, workshops with schools and more public events to foster deeper community connections with rural heritage.

The Trust has recently secured a Development Phase grant that will improve access to and within the site, address drainage and water ingress issues, convert the cow sheds into studios, develop community engagement building on these two other projects and enhance interpretation and the visitor experience.

The consultancy's role

Alix Slater Consultancy & Training developed and wrote the application for the Development Phase grant. The consultancy has now secured three grants for the museum, helped the Trust develop a business plan and undertaken evaluation of the first two projects, which underpinned the capital grant.

Funding & coverage

• Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund Brook Rural Museum · 2023