Beamish, the Living Museum of the North
Beamish Stanley County Durham
Beamish
Beamish is a living, working museum, set in 300 acres of beautiful Durham countryside. Costumed folk bring to life the Town, Pit Village, Home Farm and Pockerley Old Hall.
The new Northern General Transport Bus Depot has opened its doors at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, helping to preserve transport heritage and engineering skills, along with the century-old Northern name.
Experience firsthand how the Industrial Revolution transformed agricultural life in the region. The buildings you see at Beamish are not replicas, but have been brought, brick by brick, from around the region and rebuilt to give visitors a real sense of history.
Beamish was the vision of Dr Frank Atkinson, the Museum’s founder and first director.
Frank had visited Scandinavian folk museums in the early 1950s and was inspired to create an open air museum for the North East. He realised the dramatically-changing region was losing its industrial heritage. Coal mining, ship building and iron and steel manufacturing were disappearing, along with the communities that served them.
Frank wanted the new museum to “illustrate vividly” the way of life of “ordinary people” and bring the region’s history alive.
Beamish remains true to his principles today and brings history to life for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
