A miner’s home

Continuing the museums theme … today we drove to Beamish , the “living museum” we last visited about 40 years ago. The site is vast. Tickets are expensive (25 quid each for oldies like us!) but they are valid for a year. Just as well since there was no way we would look round all of it. We saw about half, arriving about 10 a.m and leaving close to 4 p.m.

The museum consists of reconstructed neighbourhoods in different time periods. This is part of a row of miners’ cottages c. 1913, transported from a nearby village when the owner proposed to demolish them. It looks very luxurious for a miner’s cottage but of course the family paid no rent and also had free coal, leaving plenty of disposable income. Hence the very grand fireplace and comfortable furniture.

Since we were last here, an entire 1950s neighbourhood has been added. It’s rather disconcerting seeing bits of your childhood in a museum. In one of the kitchens we immediately noticed a plastic tray identical to the one belonging to S’s mum that I’d used that morning. So she must have had it for at least 70 years! I did think it was getting rather rickety.

We used the vintage buses and trams to get about (the bus too was like the ones I used to go to school on), and visited the Edwardian neighbourhood, a street full of shops. There was so much stuff! I got the queasy feeling I get at car boot sales, humans producing so much clutter that they then don’t want any more. We swiftly headed back to the more tasteful 1950s (extra 1) for some fish and chips.

I will try to add some extras, tricky with my iPad which is now full to bursting with photos!