Pictures of Beamish

About Beamish

Beamish is famous for its lovely open-air museum which so vividly brings to life how the folk of the region lived at the turn of the 20th century.

Here, on a vast site of over 300 acres visitors can explore the lives of the men who laboured in the pits, the daily routine of the child who sat in the Victorian/Edwardian school-room, the women who toiled in cottage industries, factories, scrubbed floors and took in washing to make ends meet, and see how a farm of the period was managed.

Open-air trams run along tracks arranged around the site, there is everything here from re-assembled Pockerley Manor of 1825 to a perfectly re-created town of 1913 complete with mine/mill workers cottages, church, school and shops. You can see bicycles of the era, horses working around the town, there is even a railway where you can explore the golden age of steam and inspect an engine designed by George Stephenson reputed to be the third oldest of its kind in the world. This can be seen in the Running Shed, close-by is the "Engineer's Drawing Office" and the Engine Driver's room.

Home farm offers everyone a delightful time, not only do you get to see the animals, but you learn how a farm was managed and how the farmers wife worked busily in the farmhouse kitchen making bread, bottling fruit, and cooking for her hungry brood!

Nothing at Beamish has been left to chance, visitors get the full evocative experience of the lost world of 1913, the museum carefully preserves everything of that era for the enjoyment of today and future generations.

Beamish is found in a pleasant semi-rural location within easy reach of the town's of Chester le Street, Pelton and Stanley. It lies between the attractive county town of Durham and the vast urban sprawl of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.