This has been a regular event in our calendar but it was the first time I have visited Beamish. Along with my wife, daughter and granddaughter and a good number of members we set off to explore on of the country’s premier industrial museum.
Classic omnibuses and trams shuttled us around the various areas of the site such as the pit village complete with mine, pit cottages and school, the steam railway, and the town. We were able to travel back in time to the see the Dentist [ that must have been a scary trip] the garage complete with classic cars and motorbikes and the co-op ironmongers that sold everything from fork handles to four candles. We then had a nice lunch upstairs in the co-op including a traditional stottie sandwich served with a modern cappuccino, this kind of summed up the museum old days but up to date.
On a visit to the vaults of Barclays bank I bumped into some of our members who were enjoying the day as much as my family. Then onto the sweet shop, the cinder toffee was great then the Masonic Hall, this made me feel old as I visited this building in Sunderland before it was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt at Beamish.
My daughter and granddaughter rode the steam powered carousal a number of times and sampled the ice cream, it was good to see that something built over a century ago could still give such pleasure to a 2-year-old.
So after 5 hours we made our way to the exit after a complete circuit on the tram. My granddaughters highlight, “the smelly farm animals” my wife and daughters the pit village and mine, just a very nice family day out.