The museum illustrates the daily life of a 19C Somerset farm: the masterpiece is the 14C barn from the abbey, with its fine masonry and splendid roof.

Founded in the 7C, the abbey is linked to many famous people, such as Saint Aldhelm (639-709), one of its first abbots, the great historian William of Malmesbury (1095-1143), who was the librarian here, and Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The church was begun in the 12C and has been the victim of many degradations. During the Dissolution, its stones were used to build the parish church in 1541.

The abbey, built on the ruins of an 8C church, was begun in 1499 by Bishop Oliver King. From the pillars of the Norman church arose the pure late Perpendicular abbey. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1539), the abbey fell into disrepair but was restored in the late 16C and considerably altered by Sir Gilbert Scott (1864-1876). Inside, the nave, chancel and narrow transepts are crowned by fan vaulting.

The exhibition in the old granary (1810) which houses the centre describes the construction (1794-1810) of the canal which linked Bristol and London, engineered by John Rennie.