Stepping back in time – a day at Beamish Museum

If you fancy a break from the strains of modern life, you can’t go wrong with a trip to Beamish Museum, County Durham.

We took a day trip and travelled by train to Durham Chester le Street, where you can get buses that take you straight to the gates of Beamish.

We’d never been before, but as we’d had lots of people telling us how great it was, we were keen to visit for ourselves.

One thing you notice upon entering Beamish is that it’s truly like stepping back in time.

The entire place is open air, and has real farms and houses that you can enter and look round.

The staff are all dressed for the time as well, to add an even more authentic feel.

Although everywhere is in easy walking distance (the longest distance between places you’d have to walk is approx. 15 minutes, the quickest around 5 minutes) the best way to get around is by tram.

The trams run frequently and between all the different sites.

Our favourites were:

 

1900’s Pit Village

This village is dedicated to the mining community of the 1900s, and shows you what life was life back then.

You can enter the houses where the miners would have lived, and have a look around.

Then take a stroll along to the mines where they would have worked and view the lift shaft where they would have descended.

My two loved the school, and seeing how the children of the early 1900s would have worked and played.

No interactive whiteboards or exercise books and biros back then – it was chalk boards and slates all the way!

Much fun was also had trying to master the playground game of the time – rolling iron hoops around the playground, which sounded easy but has a certain knack to it!

 

1900’s town

Then it was time to take the tram to town, where rows of shops were waiting to be explored.

After a picnic in the town park, we visited the old fashioned sweetshop which was just as fantastic for the grown ups as the children!

Nostalgia alert as I located and bought my childhood favourites, a bag of sherbet lemons.

We also bought cola cubes, apple cubes and fruit jellies.

This is unsurprisingly a very popular shop, so expect a little bit of a queue!

You can also stop for a drink in the Sun Inn, which is a lovely pub with a roaring fire that was very nice to sit in front of seeing as it was cold outside when we visited.

1940’s farm

The 1940s farm took you right back to the time of the 2nd World War upon entering, with some music playing on the wireless and all the décor of the era too.

The outdoor toilets were basically two wooden holes, and makes you thankful for the mod con lavatories we have nowadays!

We got to Beamish for opening time at 10am, and was there until it closed and had a lovely full day of visiting all the sites.

Definitely worth a visit for all ages, and great seeing how life and technology has advanced over the years.

We certainly want to visit again soon!

 

We were given a complimentary pass for this review. All words and opinions entirely my own.