An amateur film recording the early years of Beamish: The North of England Open Air Museum. Beginning in around 1971 with the initial layout of the museum the film follows as Rowley Station, Pocklerley Farm, Beamish Colliery, Northern Town Street are built over a number of years. Later additions such as the Beamish Cottages and the Mahogany Drift Mine also feature. A number of important visitors to the museum are also recorded including Jimmy Saville, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in...

An amateur film recording the early years of Beamish: The North of England Open Air Museum. Beginning in around 1971 with the initial layout of the museum the film follows as Rowley Station, Pocklerley Farm, Beamish Colliery, Northern Town Street are built over a number of years. Later additions such as the Beamish Cottages and the Mahogany Drift Mine also feature. A number of important visitors to the museum are also recorded including Jimmy Saville, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in 1975, Sir John Betjeman opening Rowley Station in 1976 and Sid Chaplin opening Beamish Cottages in 1978. The film begins on open fields and a view of Beamish Hall. A sign for an exhibition relating to the new museum is attached to a wall. Various views of fields where the museum will be situated are followed by a series of photographs relating to a ceremony possibly marking the start of work on the museum itself. In a field a large display board outlines the locations of each part of the museum. Close-ups of each part are intercut with that of the currently empty field or of Pockerley Farm, the farmhouses along a road in a derelict state. Additional signs around the site point out where the tram railway and Northern Town Street will be. Heavy machinery work to convert farmland into the site for the new museum are intercut with some of the buildings which will form part of the museum such as the winding house for Beamish Colliery and Rowley railway station. A tram travels along the tramway is followed by views of the track and engine shed. A number of traction engines are reversed along a trail near Pockerley Farm into a field, a number of people look over a miniature traction engine outside a shed. A large chimney stands as part of Pocklerley Farm, views of some of the buildings and animal pens currently be renovated. A number of coal wagon sit on a track beside a number of cottages that have no windows or frames. The Beamish Colliery winding house and gears are under construction as is Rowley Station, mounds of earth and equipment stand nearby. Another interpretation board includes a map of the site, a set of large metal wheels or gears and at the entrance to the museum a sign that reads ‘Beamish North of England Open Air Museum’. A wooden coal wagon stands alone on a building site for Beamish Colliery, the winding wheel is still only partially constructed. In the distance two shunting steam locomotives. Another display board changes to show the car park field below with Rowley Station in the distance. At the station, the waiting room is nearing completion with a short section of track leading out in front of it. From a hill overlooking the car park field below a small crowd watch as four horses pull a wagon around a small show field. A television camera on a crane films competitors taking part in games, two people sit on a large see-saw contraction. The film changes to show large crowds now watch events taking place on the showground. The replica of Locomotion No.1 is shunted along a railway track by a steam train. A large crowd stand around the train before it travels under its own steam along a railway track. The showground and car park field seen previously are followed by a number of coal wagons and a vintage motor van driving past and. Another view of Rowley Station with a number of trains now along the track in the distance. A large crowd makes its way through the car park racing across the field to board a tram. At the controls Jimmy Saville smoking a cigar waving at the children following him. From a distance Jimmy Saville climbs aboard Locomotion No. 1 and proceeds to drive it along the track. A convoy of cars drives through the car park field changes to Frank Atkinson showing Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother along a track. She is driven away in her car. The building site near to Rowley Station changes to show a line if vintage motor buses followed by a number of large pieces of heavy machinery including a steam shovel. A man drives along a path on a vintage motorcycle. A large bonfire and firework display changes to a steam train coming along a track. Snow and ice partially cover a field and trench, part of the building work on site. General views around the site and work nearly finished up until this point including Rowley Station and Beamish Colliery, the colliery wheel now nearing completion. At Pocklerley Farm a number of historic pieces of farm machinery are stored inside sheds, some large items still sitting in the yard. Construction work has been carried out around the farm. In a field two railway passenger carriages changes to show early construction work on the ‘Town Street’ nearby including installing of the metal frame for a bandstand. A tram comes along the tramway towards ‘Town Street’. Back near Rowley Station a second building and new coal drop have been built and more track laid. Two trams, one a double-decker, travels along the tramway and work continues to finalise the constriction of Beamish Colliery with the wheelhouse now finished. Locomotion No. 1 stands on a track nearby. A tram comes along the tramway near Rowley Station, the driver or conductor gets off. On the car park field a visitor centre has been built. The tram comes along the tramway again and a horse drawn wagon speeds along a track. Someone makes a speech from the bandstand on Town Street, nearby a vintage fire engine and a number of flat-bed lorries and floats stand parked. A large crowd and vintage motorcar changes to show the coal drop near Rowley Station with coal wagons above on the track. A horse-drawn carriage comes into the car parking field and a crowd stand around a platform near the visitors centre to hear a man make a speech. At Pocklerley Farm a vintage fire engine pumps water into the lane beside the farm. A large crowd on Rowley Station watch as a train pulls into the platform, on board Sir John Betjeman who is there to official open the station in July 1976. He gives a speech to the crowd from the platform. Another building site in the field with the two-passenger railway carriage seen previously. General views of visitors wondering around the museum, in the distance a train pulling out of Rowley Station. A number of vintage vans drive along a track and around the car park field. From a Porto-cabin a number of people come forward and collection trophies from a man standing in the doorway. A vintage motorbike and car changes to show Town Street where a number of buildings are partially erected. A signal box is also under construction next to Rowley Station. In the snow during winter visitors walk past a number of piece of heavy machinery and traction engines. General views around Pocklerley Farm where scaffolding covers part of the farm building. Grass has been laid around the bandstand near Town Street and the minor’s cottages known as Beamish Cottages have been built near to Beamish Colliery. During the summer vintage cars travel along the road near to the museum as visitors walk around Pocklerley Farm. A horse and carriage ride across a field, a vintage bus travels along a road. The horse and carriage ride along the drive leading to Beamish Hall, back at the farm more builds are under construction next to the road and work continues around the farm itself. A narrow-gauge track goes under Beamish Colliery are followed by general views of various building and construction work going on around the museum. A vintage fire engines drive along a country lane, the fire hose is used to fill or clean a ditch beside a wall. Views of Rowley Station and Pocklerley Farm at earlier stages of construction follow next with both locations being more a construction site than a visitor attraction. A horse drawn carriage turns into the drive of Beamish Hall, it then leaves. More general view of Pocklerley Farm under construction. A man uses a cultivator to dig over a piece of earth. A crowd stand around a covered platform on Rowley Station as someone makes a speech. A steam train travels along the track past the now completed signal box watched by a crowd. It travels along a short section of track coming to a stop. A bricklayer works on the foundation of a building is followed by a traction engine steaming along a track pursued by a number of men and boys. A vintage tractor is driven along a road, in a field a hay wagon beside some bales and another traction engine and calliope. A brief shot of Frank Atkinson making a presentation changes to show Beamish Cottages under construction. A number of small steam engines are driven along a track near to the colliery. Visitors enjoy their time at the museum both walking and riding on trams and railway trains around the site. Inside a large shed a number of decorative horse drawn carriages are on display. A man and child lead a horse into the farmyard at Pocklerley Farm, views of construction work still underway and visitors watching bricklayers at work. The miner’s cottage changes to a steam engine are followed by a woman making a speech from a small, covered platform. The engine steams towards the platform, professional photographers take photos. A number of vintage cars drive past along a dirt road as part of a rally. One car us pushed backwards. From the platform seen previously now positioned near Beamish Cottages Sid Chaplin makes a speech, sitting next to him is Frank Atkinson. Frank and Sid walk through the backyards of the miners cottages. A narrow-gauge railway track leads inside the Mahogany Drift Mine, lit by a single light is the steam pump engine inside the winding house of Beamish Colliery, various views outside and around the building. Passengers sit inside a number of coal wagons being pulled along the track by the Locomotion No. 1 replica. Inside a garage a number of vintage vehicles. From the hillside overlooking it cars fill the parking field below, visitors walk about the museum as other ride on steam trains, trams and other vintage vehicles. General view of half built building and construction site beside a railway track are followed by those of the Mahogany Drift Mine and track leading up to it. A number of steam vehicles in the yard at Pocklerley Farm with several partially completed buildings. In a field near to Beamish Colliery a number of pieces of heavy machinery digging trenches for large concrete piping laid out around the area. Visitors look around the colliery winding house and of a large steam engine in operation. A number of additional buildings under construction changes to show a series of steam traction engines and steam locomotives at a yard, some in pieces. More general views around the site and of trams carrying passengers around the museum. The film ends with a number of steam trains coming along a track and vintage fire engines pumping water into a field.