NEW: Down House (EH) and RAF Biggin Hill Memorial Museum and Chapel

Wednesday 5th March
£ EH Members 35.50 Non EH Members £48.00 (JG member)
£EH Members 38.00 Non EH Members £50.50 (Non JG member)

Overview

With a unique place in the history of science and evolution, Down House was Charles Darwin’s family home – and today it is a site of outstanding international significance.  Step into the very rooms where Charles Darwin worked and lived, including the study where he wrote On the Origin of Species, and trace his story with a fascinating exhibition about his life and work. The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens that acted as Darwin’s ‘living laboratory’ – see recreated experiments and discover how his observations helped him develop his groundbreaking theories. We have time to explore and get lunch before we move on to RAF Biggin Hill.  RAF Biggin Hill Museum & Chapel is a small museum that tells the story of RAF Biggin Hill through the personal experiences of those who served there, and the community who supported them.  The museum journey begins over 100 years ago when RAF Biggin Hill was just farmland. Its high altitude and strategically important location between London and continental Europe, destined it to become the most important airfield of the Battle of Britain, laying the foundation for the European landscape as we know it today. One of Britain’s oldest aerodromes, RAF Biggin Hill is still internationally recognised as Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘strongest link’.  The museum is situated on the same site as St George’s RAF Chapel of Remembrance, built in 1951 to preserve the legacy of those who served and died at Biggin Hill during the Second World War. The museum safeguards the future of this important building.  Refreshments available at the Nightingale Café.

Pick-up Points

Depart Heathfield 8.30, Uckfield 8.50, Maresfield 9.00, Forest Row 9.25, War Memorial Bus Stop 9.35, Lingfield Road Bus Stop 9.40, Felbridge 9.45. Home 5.45pm