Campaign for £500k to reconstruct home at museum

A campaign has been launched to raise £500,000 to reconstruct a historical building at a Sussex museum.

The house was one of those built at Sidlesham, near Chichester, by the Land Settlement Association (LSA).

Founded in 1934, the LSA provided two-up two-down homes along with four acres of land to be used as smallholdings by families who wanted to escape poverty in Britain's industrial cities.

The Weald and Downland Living Museum has the deconstructed building in storage and plans to re-erect it on the museum site.

Sidlesham was the largest LSA site in the country, with its history explored in a BBC Sounds episode of Secret Sussex.

Although the LSA closed in 1983, its legacy survives in West Sussex's market gardening industry.

The museum hopes to reconstruct the building in 2026 and open it to the public in 2027, when it will be used as an education centre.

Curator Julian Bell said: "In terms of architecture it's not outstanding, but what it represents is the social history of the area south of Chichester, giving visitors an idea of why it is still today a big market gardening area."

It will join over 50 buildings at the museum, ranging in age from the 10th to the 19th centuries, including a Victorian school, a working mill, forge and dairy.

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