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Beamish’s Northern General Transport Bus Depot enhances the rich and diverse stories we tell regarding the history of transport in the region.

The Northern General Transport Bus Depot opened in November 2019.

The depot was officially opened in November 2019, and grouped together the museum’s busy bus fleet within one, bespoke, building, complete with workshop facilities designed specifically for bus maintenance and overhaul.

The exhibit can accommodate up to eight buses and supports Beamish’s important work of passing on heritage engineering skills. In the depot, visitors can observe the museum’s collection within the depot when they are not in use.

Due to the varying ages of the buses that are housed in the depot, the building reflects inter-war architecture, with a colour scheme based on the livery of the Northern General Transport Company, whose name also appears on the building.

The workshop has modern maintenance equipment to allow staff and volunteers to work efficiently on a wide range of historic vehicles. Learning activities in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) will also take place at the bus depot, and apprenticeships will ensure that heritage engineering skills are passed on.

The growing collection of working buses at Beamish now totals nine vehicles, operating every day that the museum is open. These range from core collection buses such as the 1928 Northern SOS QL, to the everyday use 1950s Daimler designed double-deckers, with their high-capacity and ease of operation. Replica buses provide shuttle services to The 1900s Pit Village and two wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAV) assist visitors in accessing the large museum site. The museum owns a third WAV, which, in due course, will be restored to provide a comprehensive service around the growing site.

The workshop also supports the other vehicles in use by the museum, from vintage cars and tractors, to modern vans and plant equipment. It has been a transformative addition to the engineering facilities and has already improved vehicle reliability and availability.

(l-r) Ivor Crowther of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Anne Reece of The Reece Foundation, Paul Jarman and Rhiannon Hiles of Beamish Museum, Martijn Gilbert and Stephen King of Go North East and Simon Gilroy of The Reece Foundation.

The bus depot has been supported by the Reece Foundation, and also received a significant boost from local operator Go North East, when they relocated their local bus depot from Stanley to Consett. As well as modern machinery and equipment for the workshop, the museum was able to recover a number of historical features including the glazed wooden noticeboards that contained traffic instructions for drivers. These have been restored and fixed to the walls of the museum’s depot.