100 things to do at Beamish
There’s just so much to see and do, especially when you can visit for 12 whole months using your Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership – we bet you can add even more to this list!
Can you complete our list of 101 exciting things to do at Beamish? Experience good old-fashioned family fun, from playing traditional games and spotting items from our collections to sampling tasty treats and taking a ride on our vintage transport.
There’s just so much to see and do, especially when you can visit for 12 whole months using your Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership – we bet you can add even more to this list!
We’d love to see what you get up to on your visits this year so please do share photos to our social media channels of you and your friends and family taking part in our 101 things to do challenge!
1
Get excited about your Beamish visit as you arrive under our red steam hammer at the Entrance car park. Time to have fun! (Did you know our steam hammer is known as “Tiny Tim”?).
2
Time travel through history – visit the 1820s at Pockerley, early 1900s in The Town and The Pit Village, 1940s Farm and the 1950s area. We’d love to see your photos!
3
Pick your perfect Beamish home… if you could live in a Beamish house, would it be a 1940s Land Girl cottage, Pockerley Old Hall, a Francis Street pit cottage or Ravensworth Terrace in The 1900s Town?
4
Experience our fantastic Beamish events! Use your Beamish Unlimited Pass or Friends of Beamish membership to come back again and again to enjoy our daytime events and activities.
5
See our friendly Engagers in their wonderful historical costume, what’s your favourite era – Georgian, Edwardian, 1940s or 1950s?
6
Warm yourself in front of a roaring fire.
7
Share a fun fact you discovered on a visit to Beamish on our social media and with your friends.
8
Enjoy a picnic in one of the many beauty spots across the museum.
9
We’re set in acres and acres of stunning County Durham countryside – enjoy our beautiful open air museum site!
12
See how many sounds of history you can hear, from an old bus rattling over the cobbles in our 1900s Town street to a horse and cart.
13
Find an object that you or a family member used to have in your/their house.
15
See if you can find a larder or pantry, used before households had refrigerators.
16
See if you can spot some real coal during your visit – the North East was famed for its coal production and 1913 was the year of peak production in the Great Northern Coalfield.
17
Buy the Beamish Monopoly board game or a Beamish jigsaw – a fun way to remember your visit to the museum!
18
Choose your favourite Beamish exhibit… will it be the sweet shop or how about Pockerley Old Hall or the 1950s welfare hall? It’s a difficult choice!
19
Buy a copy of the latest issue of the Beamish Magazine, a great way to keep up with Beamish news and events.
21
Follow the path through peaceful Birch Wood.
22
Be inspired to ask a family member to share their memories of “the good old days”.
23
Can you find a “netty” (outdoor toilet)?! *Museum artefact, not for actual use.
24
Find the perfect reminder of your Beamish visit in our Museum Shop at the Entrance.
25
Enjoy a ride on a vintage bus.
26
Peek into our Northern General Transport Bus Depot. See the buses and perhaps even get a glimpse of our team carrying out work on historic vehicles!
28
Take a ride on a tram, listen to its wheels trundling along the tracks.
29
Find the tram stop built with bricks from lots of different local foundries.
30
Taste Beamish sweets! No visit is complete without a trip to Jubilee Confectioners in our 1900s Town! See mouth-watering sweets being made in the factory before choosing which traditional treats to take home. Will it be cinder toffee, bon bons or black bullets?
31
Visit The Fairground. Whizz around the Helter Skelter, ride the gallopers and try your hand at sideshows.
32
Take a selfie in front of our garage in The 1900s Town. Did you know you are following in the footsteps of Downton Abbey stars? It was used as the set for Tom Branson’s garage in the Downton Abbey movie and TV show!
33
Sample delicious bread and cakes made the traditional way in Herron’s Bakery in The 1900s Town.
34
Visit Redman Park in our 1900s Town. A beautiful spot to enjoy a well-earned rest! Did you know the bandstand was originally from Saltwell Park in Gateshead?
35
Indulge in a spot of Edwardian shopping on our stalls in The 1900s Town, with a beautiful range of unique Beamish items and delicious local produce.
36
Dare you take a peek at the Edwardian dentist’s equipment in Ravensworth Terrace in The 1900s Town?
37
What types of food can you spot in The 1900s Town Co-op grocery department?
38
Pop in to our traditional Sun Inn pub in The 1900s Town.
39
Spot the Super Human Kneader in our 1900s Town – it would take a very long time to knead our Herron’s Bakery bread without this!
40
Can you spot the sweet rollers in Jubilee Confectioners’ sweet factory in The 1900s Town? They all have interesting shapes for the different boiled sweets.
41
Look for the brass plaques beside exhibit doors in our 1900s Town. What kinds of businesses were people running in the 1900s?
42
Look up and spot the Masonic symbols on the spectacular Masonic Hall ceiling in The 1900s Town.
43
Can you find items for work, sport and homeware in the Co-op hardware department in The 1900s Town?
44
Discover how much cars cost in the early 1900s in our 1900s Town garage.
45
Visit Delicious Ices in our 1900s Town street to enjoy delicious sweet shop flavoured ice creams such as Beamish cinder toffee, Turkish delight, lemon sherbet and rhubarb and custard, yum!
46
Find out what colour bags were used for sugar in the Co-op grocery in The 1900s Town.
47
What Edwardian cures can you spot in W Smith’s Chemist in The 1900s Town?
50
Do you know your pounds, shillings and pence? Step into our bank in The 1900s Town and see the grand banking desks, safes and strongrooms.
51
See the NHS clinic, telling the story of the early days of the National Health Service, in our 1950s welfare hall.
52
Visit John’s Café on our 1950s Front Street terrace. The menu includes ice cream made in the café, as well as other 1950s favourites including macaroni cheese, hot Bovril and hot Vimto.
53
Visit our newly opened 1950s Front Street terrace.
56
Book an appointment to have your hair styled in 1950s Elizabeth’s Hairdresser’s on Front Street terrace.
57
Visit No.2 Front Street Terrace where the home of Norman Cornish has been recreated, telling the story of the celebrated North East artist and the Spennymoor Settlement.
58
Make your friends jealous… take a photo of you enjoying our delicious fish and chips.
59
Visit 1950s Spain’s Field Farm and discover the story of upland farming in the North East during the 1950s. See the tough conditions faced by families living in rural areas during this time.
60
Visit 1950s Coronation Park. Named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, Coronation Park and Recreation Ground includes a 1950s-style playground, miniature golf course, sandpit, giant draughts board and football area.
61
Admire the stunning view of The 1820s Landscape from Pockerley Old Hall gardens.
62
Discover life in Georgian times at Pockerley Old Hall in our 1820s Landscape … did you know that Pockerley is original to the site, with the first record of a settlement dating back to 1183?
63
Spot how we numbered stones on the beautiful, medieval church, St Helen’s as we moved it stone by stone to be restored at the museum in our 1820s Landscape.
64
Join in with Georgian games such as knurr and spell, nine men’s morris, card games and draughts at 1820s Pockerley Old Hall in our 1820s Landscape.
65
Find the sundial in Pockerley gardens in our 1820s Landscape. Can you tell what time it is?
66
Stand at The Waggonway Great Shed in our 1820s Landscape and look up at the decorative weather vane. What can you see on the weather vane and which way is the wind blowing today?
68
Discover what cooking and medicinal herbs have been planted in Pockerley gardens.
69
Can you find the whale bone arch near St Helen’s Church?
71
What year is featured on the front of the Great Shed at Pockerley Waggonway? Clue – it’s the year Stockton and Darlington Railway opened.
73
See the whim gin in The 1820s Landscape – it was horse powered and lifted men and coal up from the mine.
74
Stand in The Colliery Yard and look up at the impressive heapstead and winding engine house.
75
The winding engine in our 1900s Colliery is the sole survivor of a type once common in the Northern Coalfield, making it a very important object.
76
Can you spot the chaldron waggons (as featured on the Beamish logo) on The Colliery Railway? What letter of the alphabet is featured on them?
77
See what’s growing in the Francis Street allotments in The 1900s Pit Village. Many miners grew their own vegetables and enjoyed taking part in community leek shows.
80
Do miners get out of bed earlier than you do? Look for the chalk boards in Francis Street back lane in The 1900s Pit Village. Before alarm clocks existed miners would write when they needed to be woken up and a “knocker upper” would bang on the door or window at that time!
81
Can you see the pit ponies and their stables in The 1900s Pit Village? They helped miners carry out lots of work down the region’s mines. The Durham coalfield had 22,000 ponies in 1913!
83
Can you spot a proggy mat in The 1900s Pit Village?
85
See if you can steer a booler in the school yard in The 1900s Pit Village.
86
Discover the miners’ safety lamps in our lamp cabin in The 1900s Pit Village Colliery Yard, a recreation of a typical colliery lamp cabin.
87
Spot a poss tub in The 1900s Pit Village. Do you know what that is and why it was used?
88
Visit The 1900s Pit Village chapel. It was moved to the museum from nearby Beamish Village.
90
Practise your neat handwriting on a slate board in The 1900s Pit Village school.
91
Visit Hetton Silver Band Hall in The 1900s Pit Village, which shares the story of colliery bands and their importance in the region.
92
See how mining families lived in the Francis Street cottages in our 1900s Pit Village.
95
Look at the beautiful orchard next to The 1940s Farm cottages. Land Girls would collect fruit to eat and make jam with during the Second World War – vital in a time of rationing, waste not – want not.
97
Say hello to the horses!
98
Visit the stables and carriage house in The 1900s Town, which represents a typical jobmaster’s yard, where horses and vehicles would have been hired out.
100
Take a ride through the Georgian landscape on Pockerley Waggonway.
Buy your Beamish Unlimited Pass
Our Beamish Unlimited Pass allows you to visit again and again after paying just once.
So if you’re worried that you won’t be able to fit everything into one day, now you can come back as many times as you like for a whole year!
