Summer of Fun: Tales from the Rails

This summer we’re marking Rail 200 by exploring the importance of the railway throughout different time periods. Each week we will be focusing on a different theme. Use your Beamish Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership to enjoy Tales from the Rails. Pay once and visit free for a year!

Throughout the summer holidays, experience a variety of engaging activities across the museum’s different time periods.

Week 1 – Early Development of Railways (19th – 27th July)
Head to the 1820s Waggonway and have a go at designing a bridge for an engine to cross. Explore the importance of track points in helping to move goods around, and at Pockerley Old Hall draw your impressions of an early engine based on descriptions of a lay encounter with one.

Week 2 – Emigration (28th July – 3rd August)
Learn about the Board of Guardians in The 1900s Town. Head to M G Armstrongs to get help on the pros and cons of emigrating, and call in to see Miss Smith’s domestic servant to help her decide whether to emigrate or stay, and what she might take with her if she does go.

Week 3 – Suffragettes (4th – 10th August)
Be immersed in the campaign for Women’s Suffrage. Witness a Tax Resistance Auction take place in the garden of No 7 Ravensworth Terrace and take on the role of the police investigating an incident in the area, making your enquiries across The Town and at Rowley Station. Once you’ve finished your enquiries, visitors can return to the Masonic Hall to answer questions about the crime. Find out if you are able to solve the case, and what happened after.

Week 4 – The General Strike (11th – 17th August)
Visitors to The 1900s Pit Village will be tasked with investigating the derailment of the Flying Scotsman service at Cramlington during the 1926 Lockout and General Strike, trying to get information from the coal mining community who resides there.

Week 5 – Evacuees (18th – 24th August)
Head to The 1940s Farm to learn about the role that rail transport played in safely transporting Evacuees during the Second World War, and take part in a range of special activities relating to this.

Week 6 – Cup Finals (25th August – 1st September)
Visitors to The 1950s Town can find out about the success of the football teams from the region who played in Cup Finals at Wembley, both amateur and professional. Play spot the ball, try and make it on to our ‘keepie uppies’ leaderboard, and help design a badge for a new football club.

• To complement the museum’s on site activities, we will also be releasing a weekly Tales from the Rails podcast, diving into the background and stories surrounding the weekly theme, with a range of special guests from across the museum and beyond. Click here to listen on Spotify.
  
• We will also be highlighting objects from the museum’s collection each week in an online blog post written by members of Beamish’s Curatorial Team, which includes stories of objects that we have never been able to display at the museum before.

Use your Beamish Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership to enjoy Summer of Fun: Tales from the Rails. Pay once and visit free for a year!

Beamish reserves the right to alter events, activities, facilities, operations and opening times without prior notice.