BEAMISH - AN EXTRAORDINARY DAY OUT!

Beamish, an open air museum set in two hundred acres of beautiful County Durham countryside, vividly illustrates life in the North of England in the early 1800s and 1900s.

Visitors stroll down the cobbled street of The Town, to see the Dentist's home and surgery, Solicitor's office, Co-operative shops, a newspaper office, Sweetshop and Sweet Factory and Motor & Cycle Works and period branch of Barclay & Co's Bank. The latest addition to The Town, a splendid Carriage House, was opened in September 2002 by HRH The Princess Royal. An amazing collection of horse-drawn vehicles and an agricultural merchant's is housed in this distinctive cast-iron framed building. Vehicles include a Ringtons Tea Van, Hoults removal van, steam fire engine, coaches, carriages and even a horse-drawn hearse ! Fascinating enamel advertising signs, decorative and working harness are on display and smart carriage horses are stabled nearby.

In The Colliery Village guided tours are given underground at a real "drift" mine and a row of miner's cottages shows how pitmen and their families lived. There's a Methodist chapel and village school here too. Traditional breeds of livestock fill the farmhouse at Home Farm and, in the welcoming farmhouse kitchen, the farmer's wife goes about her daily chores.

Pockerley Manor is based on a mediaeval fortified manor house and recreates rural life of almost two hundred years ago. The small manor house, its terraced gardens and costume of the day are in complete contrast to the lifestyle of the early 1900s which the other attractions at Beamish portray.

The 1825 Railway - Pockerley Waggonway illustrates the days of railway pioneering and in 2002 a major new attraction was unveiled here. A full-size working replica of an early 1800s 'lost locomotive', The Steam Elephant, has been researched and built using contemporary illustrations for guidance. The Elephant works, alongside the replica of Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1, taking visitors on a short ride in carriages recreated from the early days of rail travel.

Beamish is open :- SUMMER (April through October) - Daily 10am to 5pm, last admission 3pm. WINTER (November to March) - 10am to 4pm, last admission 3pm, closed Mondays and Fridays. A winter visit to Beamish is centred on The Town and tramway. Other areas are closed and, consequently, admission charges are reduced. Please check for Christmas opening times.

Media Contact
Jacki Winstanley, Publicity Manager Tel: 0191 370 4024
Email: jackiwinstanley@beamish.org.uk