Since established in 1970, the museum has continued to gain strength, as new exhibits are regularly introduced such as the replica of The Steam Elephant; a locomotive built in 1815.
Three of the main attractions were already at Beamish, namely Pockerley Manor, the Drift Mine and Home Farm. However, further buildings have been transported from their original sites in nearby small towns and mining villages.
Stepping
through the entrance of the museum is like being
transported on a time machine. Everything looks exactly as it did over 100 years
ago. To a few, a ride on the trams will bring back memories of a bygone age. But
for those born in the age of fast cars, it will be their first experience of a
more leisurely mode of transport. Close to the entrance is Home Farm, which dates back to the middle of the 18th century. The kitchen, with its large open range, is the focal point of the farmhouse. Here the farmer’s wife would have prepared meals for both her family and the farm hands. You can almost smell the wonderful aroma of fresh bread baking in the oven. Outside, both in the farmyard and the fields beyond, animals can be seen wandering around. Some are now considered rare breeds.
A short walk from the farm is the colliery village. Collieries were often remote, so cottages were built to house miners and their families. Five pit cottages were brought to Beamish from neighbouring Hetton-le-Hole. One was transformed into the colliery office where miners received their wages every two weeks. The other four however, are furnished to portray the miner’s family life during the years leading up to the First World War.
The cottages have two rooms downstairs, the kitchen, with its large open range serving as both a cooker and a means of heating the house, and a front room. Upstairs there are one or two bedrooms. In the absence of a bathroom, a large tin bath in front of the roaring fire sufficed, the toilet being in a small shed in the back yard. The lack of labour saving devices is noticeable. There are none of the luxuries we take so much for granted today. Washing machines and electric irons were still to be invented. Washing was done in a posser and then ironed with a flat iron heated on the range. Even the mats on the stone flagged floors were home made. Known as ‘hooky’ or ‘clippy mats’, they were made with pieces of rag or wool cut into strips and pulled through the canvas with a hook.
A few yards up the lane is the village school. Three classrooms are complete with old style desks and blackboards. A new Education Act at the turn of the century meant that education was taken very seriously. Schools such as the one at Beamish would have enrolled up to two hundred children and they were expected to work hard and
learn
discipline.Only a short distance from both the cottages and school is the mine. The Mahogany Drift mine was opened sometime in the 1850s, a time when mining was the north-east’s life blood. Today visitors can walk into the mine and experience for themselves how it felt to work in such desperate conditions. Outside in the yard are Pip, a white pit pony and his handler. At one time Pip was used pull tubs of coal in the mine. However he was retired in 1986 and now enjoys being made a fuss of by visiting children.
From the colliery yard, visitors can enjoy a ride on the replica of an open-air double-deck bus. The bus is available to carry passengers up to the town, where again, there is so much to see.
Firstly there is the Victorian Park, with its neat lawns and flower-beds. There is also a bandstand,
which
at one time stood in Saltwell Park, Gateshead. On some Sunday afternoons, a
concert is given by a brass band. Then opposite the park, is a row of Georgian
terraced houses waiting to be explored. Ravensworth Terrace, as it is called, was originally built in Gateshead around the middle of the 19th century. Built to a more luxurious standard, they included bathrooms and, for those who wanted it, electricity.
One
such house belonged to a dentist. His front room is converted into a waiting
room for patients, while upstairs the large bedroom makes a splendid surgery.
On show is some dental equipment of the day including ‘laughing gas’
– a far cry indeed from a dental surgery today. A ‘dentist’ is on hand to
explain how everything worked. Another bedroom was used as the recovery room.
The dentist of the day was obviously a man of means, as he also owned the house
next door as the family residence.Further homes on display are those of a solicitor and a music teacher. The solicitor wasn’t keen to be brought into the ‘new age’ as his furniture demonstrates.
At the end of the terrace is the Sun Inn, a typical north-east public house. As with all pubs in the north-east at that time, the bar was strictly for men only. Women were only allowed into the ‘select’, a small room at the back!
Alongside the public house, stand the newspaper office and sweet shop. The sweet shop window displays large jars of the brightly coloured sweets, which are on sale inside. What is more, in the back shop there is a demonstration of how these sweets were produced.
Similarly,
just across the road the Co-operative Society has a range of shops stocked with
groceries, drapery and hardware, all from the early 20th century.
Some visitors will recall the old style packaging and even recognise a few
goods, which have long since disappeared.Even in the early 1900s, no town was complete without a bank. At Beamish there is a branch of Barclays, complete with brass grills at the counters and strong rooms in the basement.
Close by the town is the railway station. The building is typical of stations once seen on local branch lines and dates from 1867. Items in and around the station have been acquired from several different railway stations in the area.
Furthermore, only a tram ride away is Pockerley Manor with its fine terraced garden. The original house dates back to the 1400s, an extension being added around the early 18th century. The house, which has been decorated and furnished in the style of the 1820s, is evidently for the better off. Like Home Farm, the kitchen was the most important place in the house. The large open range was used for cooking, while at the side there is a smaller oven used for baking bread. The large table where the family ate their meals dominates the room. A smaller kitchen was used for preparing food.
Across the hall is the parlour, a room containing fine furniture and, in keeping with most homes of that period, only used on special occasions. Upstairs the master bedroom has a warm fire, fine furnishings and a four poster bed. The middle bedroom also contains a four poster bed, while the third bedroom was used for storing grains and the like. Compare these rooms with the servants’ quarters at the back of the house. Here we find a small dreary room without any form of heating.
Finally, during the summer months events are held regularly throughout the museum making Beamish a fun day out for all the family. However it is primarily a learning process and staff, wearing authentic costumes of the period, is available in all the buildings to answer any questions.