Beamish Museum

Beamish is a world famous open air museum telling the story of life in North East England in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian times.

Power cuts at home today so thought we'd try Beamish Museum for a day out.  Excellent value for money if you live locally as your ticket buys you a 12 month admission.  I hadn't been for 15 years and we laughed about our first visit in 1982 when we were so skint we hid our youngest in the car boot so we wouldn't have to pay for him!

Lovely to walk around on a sunny day like today and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in industrial and social history.  It's not a theme park so don't go expecting  happy slappy stuff but it caters for all sorts and seems to generally do it very well.

One disappointment was a surly cashier at a tea shop who just couldn't be bothered.  I asked for a sausage roll but despite opening at 10am, an hour later they were still cooking (reheating?).  "Not ready for another 30 minutes" she snarled, glared at me and stomped across to the till and shouted "Anything else".  Get over yourself dear.  You would have thought on one of the busiest days of the year they'd get their act together.

The popular fish and chip shop had a 30 minute queue and there was a regular stream of would be diners giving up and walking away.  That's a pity 'cos they smelled wonderful.

The whole museum campus is littered with fascinating bits of machinery and exhibits.  I bought a £5 guide but it didn't say anywhere what they were or where they came from.  They could do better.

My pic shows a railway yard crane, a steam engine but more than that I can't say because they didn't.  I liked the setting as it reminded me so much of the dereliction that I loved exploring many decades ago as a small child.

The extra pic shows a chaldron wagon, a coal truck that was used by the Londonderry Coal Company at Seaham Harbour.  The wheels off one of these lies in the sea to the south of the harbour.  Apparently it over shot the coal drops when loading a collier.  Tis pic was taken at Beamish Museum.  I did a photo survey for one of the coal drops in 1964 for Frank Atkinson, then the curator of Bowes Museum who managed the gathering of artefacts for the proposed museum.