Beamish Museum, England

Beamish Museum Stately Homes in Near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England

Beamish is a world famous open air museum, and tells the story of the people of North East England at two important points of their history - 1825 and 1913. In 1825 the region was rural and thinly populated. The industrial revolution, especially the coming of the railways, accelerated change. By 1913 the region's heavy industries were at their peak.

Beamish is not a traditional museum. Most of the houses, shops and other buildings have been "deconstructed" from elsewhere in the region and rebuilt here. A few, the Drift Mine, Home Farm and Pockerley Manor were here already. All are buildings filled with objects, furniture and machinery - real things from our extensive collections. Scholarship and detailed research is behind everything we do.

You will find here no glass cases and few labels. Within our buildings you will find costumed people who are trained to talk to visitors and to answer their questions. The staff are proud of their heritage. We believe that the reality of human beings is better than technological virtual reality. It is this belief that distinguishes us from other museums.

The Beamish open air Museum was established in 1970. It is managed by a Joint Committee representing North Eastern City, County and District Councils. It was established as " an Open Air Museum for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving, interpreting and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and agriculture and way of life in the North of England".

(c) The Beamish Museum