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By the time you read this the Rural Life Centre, Tilford's country life museum, will, whatever the weather, have started its summer season. As is now traditional much has been achieved over the winter months by the army of volunteers to improve the scope of the displays and present an ever changing programme of events. Among the "new arrivals" is a 1920s holiday chalet formerly at Box Hill. This little wooden building started life as a shed for camping equipment by regular visitors to the Dorking site before one thought the shed itself formed a suitable holiday home. Named "Smudgers" the museum now thinks this event marked the birth of the British holiday chalet and is pleased to announce that the restored building is now fully open to visitors. On a smaller scale, the centre's prefab home has now gained a garden shed in the form of a 'recycled' Stanton air-raid shelter recovered from a local garden where it had previously served in both roles. Both these buildings will be formally opened at the Countryside & Woodland Show in April. However the season starts with a temporary exhibition mounted by the Bramshott & Liphook Preservation Society on the history of Liphook and its surroundings. Subtitled "The Coaching Stop that Grew", the exhibition highlights the settlement's importance as a hub on both early roads and the later railways. Today the village has grown out of all recognition but the exhibition will introduce newer residents to the earlier roots. Among other event highlights which are new to the museum this year are Days Gone By, a major new vintage rally organised by the Central Southern Vintage Agricultural Club in co-operation with the Countryside Restoration Trust at adjoining Pierrepont Farm, and Romany Day, a very successful event, moving to Tilford from its former venue at Ewell, where visitors can learn the heritage of Romany Gypsies in Surrey. An international flavour pervades in August, though, when it is hoped a representative from the Polish embassy will be on hand to open the Tweedsmuir Barracks permanent exhibition on the history of the Polish Resettlement Corps at Thursley after the second world war. Titled "Tam Mieszkalismy" (which means 'we lived there'), the Lottery funded project is the brainchild of brothers Wies and Zen Rogalski who were brought up in the former Canadian wooden barracks and still forming a home for displaced families until the 1960s. The season's last event in October will be the ever-popular Land Rover Rally but there is something different going on at the museum almost every weekend and visitors are advised to check the website for the latest information. The Rural Life Centre, Reeds Road, Tilford, Surrey, GU10 2DL, an accredited museum, is open from 10am to 5pm on Wednesday to Sunday each week. A full diary of events can be downloaded from the website at www.rural-life.org.uk or call 01252 795571 for further details. Rural Life Centre Old Kiln Museum Trust Reeds Road, Tilford, Surrey, GU10 2DL www.rural-life.org.uk 01252 795571 Reg. charity 289150