As some of you may know, I work away quite a bit so it's lovely to get home and spend a bit of quality time with my Family. I used to spring spontaneous days out for us all quite often but haven't for a while as life seems to be somewhat hectic of late. When my boys were younger these days out used to be dubbed "Dad's big adventure" and as we haven't done one for a while I thought it prudent that we did. Unfortunately David my younger son couldn't join us as he is approaching A Levels at College and it didn't fit with his schedule. On the other hand, my wife's mother is visiting us from Turkey so she was more than happy to join us. I shall cut to the chase.
I decided we'd all go to Beamish in County Durham. It's a living museum featuring exibits depicting life in the North East of England around 1825 and 1913. The museum is set in 300 acres of countryside and is a delightful experience... as I hope to convey with some edited highlights.
A screen grab from their website.
We left home early-ish as it's a fair trip from where we are. We had a brief stop on the way in the Cumbrian town of Kirkby Stephen to stretch legs and stock up on picnic supplies.
We then arrived at the museum and went straight in.
The first place we went was the Colliery Village. A reconstruction of a village from 1913 with pit cottages, school and chapel.
The School House.
Wife and Daughter in class...
Supervising my elder Son Tom with his schoolwork.
My daughter playing with hoop and stick in the school yard.
The interior of one of the pit cottages. There are also demonstrations of rug making, bread baking and other crafts in these houses.
Looking back towards the village as we head for the Farm buildings.
Me and the little one. Notice the means she employs to let me know which way she wants to go. (It's a Johnstone Modern by the way)
We did take pictures at the Farm but I'll skip them as I'm sure you've seen Farm Animals before. The Shire Horses were amazing though, all be it that they were stabled (and letting their hair down as it were)
The Omnibus on it's way back to the pit village.
The tram to town... This vehicle was built in 1925 and operated in Gateshead till 1951
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