Tuesday, May 24 - Beamish Open Air Museum

Beamish Open Air Museum is a different kind of experience. A Living History Museum, founded by a former curator of the Bowes Museum (which we will be visiting next week), as a way to preserve the Northern Yorkshire way of life.

We spent the first two and a half hours exploring on our own, and there was quite a lot to see. Most of the areas are interpreted as Victorian, and those are the ones I visited in the morning.

Here are a few photos from the morning, all courtesy of Rebecca Bush, as my camera died after one picture.

Sarah, me, and Anjuli on board the trolley.

Walking around the area where they keep their wagons.

Typical Victorian sitting room.

Stuffed dog (real! I cannot make this stuff up guys). Also typical type of object found in a Victorian sitting room. (Can you believe someone actually donated this???)

Watching the dentist explain the horrors of Victorian dentistry (not much has changed...)

Really cool old guy using the printing press. They sell whatever he prints downstairs in the post office.

Poster in the schoolhouse. Teaching children how to cure consumption.

Didn't really catch exactly what this was; we were down in the mine standing in about a 4 ft. tall space, which is uncomfortable for even someone as short as me after a while.

After a quick lunch we met with Kate Reeder, the Keeper of Social History. Originally the museum practiced an unselective collections policy, meaning that they would take anything and everything. Eventually, they ended up with dozens of any given object. One benefit of this policy was that the museum could form two collections: the working collection and the core collection. The working collection includes the objects on display throughout the museum.Many of the items can be touched, are used by the interpreters, and some furniture can even be sat upon! The core collection is not completely off limits to the public either. One of Kate’s jobs is giving tours to various groups of the core collection; depending on the interests of the group, visitors can see different aspects of the collection. (Example: an extensive taxidermy collection inherited when the Northallerton Natural History Museum closed down. Seriously, there are a lot of stuffed animals, as you can see below.)

Some of their core collection. Those boxes contain mostly taxidermy.

Beamish is not managed by either English Heritage or the National Trust. They are currently run by seven local councils, although these groups provide only about 2 ½ % of the operating money. Most of their operating expenses are covered by admission, which is quite an amazing feat when considering everything they are doing in the museum.

Most of the interpreters are paid employees, and have specific roles within the park.Throughout the day we saw them baking in ovens dating back to both the Victorian and Georgian periods, and there were also men giving tours of the mine (an actual coal mine, now closed down. Our guide was actually a former miner from the area). Overall you feel immersed in the culture of the different periods, although we learned very little about the history of northern Yorkshire, and how it differs from history in other parts of England.

Talking with the interpreter about Georgian era fireplaces, and eating some of the food she made on it. (Don't remember the name, but surprisingly good!)

And...more taxidermy. This time as food in a Georgian pantry.

Discussing this bed from the 18th century with another interpreter. She was trying to make us guess what this door in the side (not the one that is open, but on the left side of the bed) was for. We all guessed wrong, but it wasn't really our fault. It may have been added much later by a man who was using it as a chicken coop.

There was a lot of advertisement everywhere, several of them real sponsors. All period appropriate.

We did have a great time though, and I can see how a museum like this appeals to a lot of different demographics. I wish we had more time to spend looking around; it is definitely a museum that takes all day to explore. It is also nice that they will continue to add and change their exhibits, as there are only so many taxidermy animals one can look at.

*****

On our way home we stopped by Durham Cathedral, an absolutely beautiful building, where the famous English historian Bede is entombed. Sorry there are no pictures, but be sure to google it if you are interested.