25 Photographs of a Beamish Museum Walk Round Co Durham

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These photographs were sent to me by my good Youtube friend Chris over there in Bempton, Bridlington, East Yorkshire. They in turn had been given to him by a family friend.
I have no hesitation in publishing them on my channel as they offer folks an insight into what you might expect to see on a Beamish Museum walk round.

The Inspiration Behind the Beamish Museum
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.

Frank passed away on 30th December 2014.

1958: Frank Atkinson, then director at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, presented a report to Durham County Council, recommending items of everyday history were collected to eventually form part of an open air museum. A policy of “unselective collecting” – “you offer it and we will collect it”- saw an army camp of 22 huts rapidly filled with objects ranging from steam engines to sewing machines.

Beamish Museum
Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.

The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century. Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of Industrial Revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.

The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has influenced other living museums.[citation needed] It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.