Come along and see displays at Pockerley Old Hall, The 1940s Farm, and the chapel in The 1900s Pit Village as we celebrate Harvest Festival and Harvest Home.
Harvest Home marked the end of the harvest season in agricultural communities. Celebrations took the form of food, drink, music and merriment and took place in farmhouses and sometimes inns or cottages. Today, we celebrate Harvest Home at 1820s Pockerley and The 1940s Farm.
Harvest Festival comes out of Harvest Home, which s a much older celebration. It was an enterprising vicar from Cornwall who, in the mid-19th century, announced to his congregation that they were going to have a Harvest Festival at the church to thank God for a safe harvest.
By the turn of the 20th century, chapels up and down the country would have been celebrating Harvest Festival with huge displays of produce from allotments and beautifully decorative bread made by miners’ wives. You can see a traditional Harvest Festival display in the chapel in The 1900s Pit Village. Visitors can also hear our Beamish Volunteer Choir sing at 1pm and 2pm in the Pit Village chapel on Sunday.
As with all daytime events, you can use your Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership to enjoy this special event.
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Beamish reserves the right to alter or change this programme at any point.