Beamish, The Living Museum of the North

Beamish, the living museum of the north of England

Beamish, The Living Museum of the North is an open-air museum located in Beamish, County Durham (United Kingdom). Its approach is to recreate everyday life in the north of England across different eras through historic streets, buildings and settings that visitors explore on foot. The institution presents itself as a "living" museum in which history is experienced directly, with costumed interpreters and traditional crafts in operation.

Access is organised through the Beamish Unlimited Pass, which allows visits to the museum as many times as desired over a year after a single payment. Tickets can be purchased online to speed up entry. No time slot needs to be booked for the visit, and last admission is one hour before closing.

Eras and areas of the route

The museum organises its content into themed areas covering the period from the 19th century to the mid-20th century:

• Pockerley (1820s): Pockerley Old Hall, with Georgian gardens and landscape, and the 1820 Waggonway, which tells the story of the birth of the railways.
• 1900s Pit Village: a recreation of a mining community at the peak of coal production in the north-east.
• 1900s Town: shows how families lived and worked in 1913 and in the years before the First World War.
• 1900s Colliery: dedicated to the mine and to those who worked in it.
• 1940s Farm: stories of wartime life in the north-east of England, with the presence of the Land Girls and the Home Guard.
• 1950s Town: life in the north-east in the mid-20th century, with technology, housing and objects of the period.
• Spain's Field Farm (1950s Farm): the history of upland farming in the 1950s.

The museum also has its own transport: trams and vintage buses run throughout the day on a circular route around the site, included in the Unlimited Pass or in Friends of Beamish membership.

School visits, groups and overnight stays

Beamish has specific programmes for the education sector, with school visits, resources for home education and activities and workshops. It also offers group visits and overnight stays for groups. Practical information for visitors is complemented by sections on accessibility, places to stay, food and drink, shopping and FAQs.

Accessibility

The museum warns that it is a large open-air site with numerous historic buildings, some of which are not always completely accessible. To maintain authenticity, ground surfaces vary and are sometimes uneven, with steep slopes in places and stepped access in certain buildings and exhibitions. The museum has a wheelchair accessible vehicle that operates every day the museum is open, available on request and limited to its seated capacity; it does not run a general service and is reserved for those who need its adaptations, including a lift at the rear. The staff in charge have been trained to look after these visitors.

Food and shops within the site

Food and drink options are distributed across the museum's different areas:

• 1900s Town: Tea Rooms (takeaway and indoor seating), The Sun Inn pub (takeaway and indoor seating), Herron's Bakery (takeaway), Jubilee Confectioners sweet shop (takeaway) and Beamish Delicious Ices.
• 1900s Pit Village: Davy's fish and chip shop and Sinkers' Bait Cabin, both takeaway.
• 1950s Town: Middleton's Quality Fish and Chips (takeaway, with a vegetarian chips option on request) and John's Café (takeaway and indoor seating).
• Pockerley (1820s): Drovers Tavern, with indoor and outdoor seating.
• Entrance building: Coffee Pot Café (takeaway and indoor seating).

Activities and programme

The programme includes temporary events and activities. Examples listed on the site include a weekly pre-school playgroup on Fridays in the 1950s Welfare Hall, harvest celebrations, a family film club with short films from the Leeds Young Film Festival and screenings at the Grand Cinema, such as F. W. Murnau's original version of Nosferatu (1922) with live piano accompaniment. Activities have also been programmed to commemorate the 1926 miners' lock out, with a soup kitchen in the 1900s Pit Village focusing on the role communities played in feeding those left without work.

Surroundings and access

The museum is located in Beamish, County Durham, postcode DH9 0RG, and has electric vehicle charging points in the entrance car park. It can be reached by car from the A1M (junction 63, Chester-le-Street) and via the A693 and A692, or by public transport: the nearest train stations are Chester-le-Street, Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and several Go North East bus routes connect Newcastle, Gateshead, Birtley, Ouston, Chester-le-Street, Stanley, Sunderland, Kibblesworth, Beamish, Grange Villa, Pelton Fell and other places. The site has bike racks next to the entrance building and is connected to local cycle routes, including the C2C; bicycles are left at the visitor's own risk.

Location and contact

Beamish Museum, Beamish, County Durham DH9 0RG · Telephone: 0191 370 4000 · Email: museum@beamish.org.uk