ALL ROADS LEAD TO BEAMISH

May 2023.

The in-laws had always wanted to visit Beamish, the living history museum just outside Newcastle, and to be honest I’d been keen to see how it’s changed since we used to take the boys a decade ago when it was possible to entertain a pre-teen with a trip down a mine, a tram ride and a cone of chips.

On the 2 hour trip up the A1 my father-in-law regaled us with tales of his only previous journey to Newcastle in 1965, a trip immortalised on “The Likely Lads“.

No sign of a 1960s Toon at Beamish yet, but almost every other era now represented.

We started at the farm, after a long wait to get in, it was heaving at half-term.

The reconstructed farm buildings are typical of Beamish; a chance for grandparents to go “oooh, we had a mangle like that” while their grandchildren wonder where the 1940s ice cream is.

Yes, people really did have outdoor toilets (“netties”) before 1964, the year civilised Britain was born.

You’d think I’d hate this nostalgia overload, wouldn’t you ? But like the Bradford Industrial Museum I wrote about here I found it endlessly fascinating, much more so than a tour round Lord and Lady Chatterley’s grand estate.

A quick trip on the Rotherham bus takes you to the 1950s, appropriately,

where apparently everyone was obsessed with non-league football. And perhaps they were.

Was Truman’s REALLY the beer of choice in Crook 70 years ago ?

The ’50s section is still emerging, but the little shops are a joy. I’m sure Stafford Paul remembers a hairdressers like this;

Slightly disconcerting to go from ’40s to ’50s and then back to the 1900s, sort of like stepping from Kings Lynn to Wisbech or something.

The original 1900s street has the sweet shop, the pub,

and the dentists.

At least they had dentists back then.

Sadly, there was no way I was paying a fiver a pint of homebrew in a plastic glass, but the Sun (reconstructed brick-by-brick from a micro pub in Bishop Auckland) is still an essential stop; I visited when it was in the GBG back in the 2000s.

But I did succumb to the fish and chips (in beef dripping) at the chippy in the mining village, again worth a visit just for the tiling.

Four hours flew by at Beamish, well worth a trip in any weather, but you should only attempt to buy those chips between 14:53 and 15:07.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

11 thoughts on “ALL ROADS LEAD TO BEAMISH”

  1. “I’m sure Stafford Paul remembers a hairdressers like this”.
    No, there was a little seat that rested on the two arms to save Mr Lakin from bending down. And no horse’s head and no fire extinguisher.

    “we used to take the boys a decade ago when it was possible to entertain a pre-teen with a trip down a mine, a tram ride and a cone of chips” and remind them how lucky they are not to have been born a few generations earlier when they’d work down t’mine instead of going to school, walk two miles there and back because they couldn’t afford t’tram and have a bag of chips at Christmas – if they were lucky. Yes, the youth of today, they don’t know they’re born.

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  2. We visited last year & as far as he remembers Mr S said the beer was “fine ” -we had a sandwich in the pub too which was VERY ordinary & not cheap but we couldn’t be bothered queueing for the fish & chips.I enjoyed the visit though

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    1. Glad we took Mrs RM’s famous sandwiches then, Pauline !

      I remember the Sun from years back as being very basic, just beers and eggs of various types. Beamish have added a ’50s style chippy but the one in the mining village is the one to queue for.

      It’s a good day out, but not one I’d do every month !

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    2. What a shame it is that so much changed over the last century and there’s now a need for such museums where you pay over the odds for a sandwich or queue too long for fish and chips and, worst of all, get beer in a plastic glass.
      There’s not many children nowadays that get taught in a proper 1828 classroom, with a coke stove like in Pardoes, like what I was sixty year ago.

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      2. Yes indeed, and they had respect for their elders and betters.
        And they’d know that if beer was a penny a pint a firkin of it could be sold for six shillings.
        And if they were lucky enough to soon work in a beer house, rather than down the pit or up chimneys, they’d know the price of a round from mental arithmetic, there being no need for a till back then.

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    1. Yes I was, and just edited that line (which stopped short) to reflect that. Think they had Butterknowle in proper glasses when I went.

      Not sure a pub you have to pay (£22) to get in is allowed in the GBG, though I was forced to pay £6 to get in the nearby Chester-le-Street Greyhound stadium for a pint so who knows !

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