Beamish Museum

[ Beamish Board School ]

Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open air museum located in the town of Stanley, County Durham, England. Beamish tries to show what life was like in a typical northern town in the early 20th century — much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to 1913. Aside from the main town however there is also the manor house and the railway which are based on 1825.

Beamish Fair and Chapel

Beamish Colliery & Village

Beamish Board School

School boards were set up in England and Wales under the Elementary Education Act 1870 .

School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Act. Education was still not free of fees. Members were directly elected, not appointed by borough councils or parishes.

Beamish Town

Printers and Bank

Beamish Co-operative Store

Pockerley Manor

It is the first English museum to be financed and administered by a consortium of County Councils (Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear) and it was the first regional open air museum in England. The museum was established in the 1970s under director Frank Atkinson. Atkinson was concerned to preserve the customs, traditions, and ways of speech of the region and adopted a policy of "unselective collecting", whereby local people could donate anything of the period to the museum.

Home Farm

Pockerley Waggonway

The first exhibition was held in Beamish Hall in 1971. The site was opened to visitors for the first time in 1972. The museum is 95% self funding, mainly from the admission charges of around 350,000 visitors annually.

Donations welcomed!

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