A promotional film produced for The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish, now Beamish the Living Museum of the North, showcasing many of its era specific locations and attractions available to visitors. Many of the museums main attractions feature including the 1900 town, pit village, colliery, and farm as well as the Georgian era Pockerley Old Hall. Title: The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish A man leads a pony along Francis Street, part of the 1900s Pit Village, behind him an...

A promotional film produced for The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish, now Beamish the Living Museum of the North, showcasing many of its era specific locations and attractions available to visitors. Many of the museums main attractions feature including the 1900 town, pit village, colliery, and farm as well as the Georgian era Pockerley Old Hall. Title: The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish A man leads a pony along Francis Street, part of the 1900s Pit Village, behind him an era specific double-decker motor bus carrying visitors away from The Colliery. Several visitors come out of Pockerley Old Hall into the garden while in the 1900 Town two young women speaks with a guide working inside the Beamish Motor and Cycle Works. Two women in 1900s costume sit chatting as the double-decker bus travels out of the Pit Village, various accolades awarded to the museum are superimposed over this footage. A double-decker motor bus passes an overhead electric tram parked at a stop on Ravensworth Terrace heading into the 1900 Town. A montage of motor buses and tramcars travelling in both directions around the Beamish site starting at the Entrance building. From the drivers position at the front of a tram the vehicle passing The Sun Inn in the 1900 Town. From nearby Redman Park another single decker tram comes into town. Crowds of visitors stand outside the Annfield Plain Co-Operative Store looking at window displays, inside they browse the grocery, drapery and hardware departments with some speaking with guides working behind the counter. Above their heads the Lamson Paragon cash system in operation moving cash around the store to the cash office. Next door the Beamish Motor and Cycle Works, inside displays of vintage cars and motorcycles. A chauffeur driven Armstrong Whitworth vintage car pulls up outside the garage and a man in overalls collects a two-gallon can of petrol taking it out to the car. Back inside the man in overalls looks over the engine of another vintage car while in the rear garage a Daimler lorry. Back outside the Armstrong Whitworth car pulls away. Inside the Sweet Shop women in black and white Edwardian costumes serve children while around the shops displays of Rowntree’s chocolates and Jubilee confectionaries in large jars. A shop assistant drops a tray of honeycomb toffee onto the counter which is quickly eaten up by three children. Next door in the Sweet Factory a confectioner works to make fresh hard sweets using traditional techniques and equipment. Behind the bar inside The Sun Inn a barman pulls a pint of beer, around him patrons sit enjoying their drinks. Next to pub the Town Stables where two men lead dray horses into the yard while in the window of the branch office of the Northern Daily Mail and Sunderland Daily Echo the headlines of the day. Upstairs a man worker a printing machine producing commercial stationary while in the shop below a woman behind the counter shows a group of girls a selection of Edwardian cards. Visitors walk along Ravensworth Terrace; in a parlour of one of the houses belonging to Music Teacher Florence Smith a woman sits playing the piano. Next door at the Dentist two women sits waiting to be called upstairs as a servant stokes the coal fire. Upstairs one of the women takes a seat in the dentist chair as the dentist himself prepares to examine her teeth using traditional instruments including a peddle-driven drill. On a nearby table a full set of dentures while around the affluent house indoor plumbing and bedrooms. Inside Redman Park visitors walk past floral displays and an elegant band stand changes to the nearby Rowley Station where two women sit on a bench as a porter pushes cases along the platform using a porters trolley. The women get up and go into the ‘Ladies Room’ where a large coal fire is burning. At the far end of the platform a signalman working inside the signal box, he pulls a lever and the signal outside changes. Across the cast-iron footbridge a guide shows a couple around the station’s goods sheds taking them over to James White Coal Merchants depot. Back at the station a steam locomotive and rolling stock on display. In the distance surrounded by trees and green vegetation Pockerley Old Hall with visitors wonder around the Georgian-era gardens. Along the road leading to The Quilter’s Cottage a woman in early 19th century costume waves at a man leading a horse-and-cart. She strokes the coat of a dog that has walked up to her. A gardener at work at the hall changes to a woman stoking the fire inside, the panelled room is lit only by candlelight. In the parlour another woman writes a letter using a quill while in the kitchen a visitor watches a cook making bread. The dough ready it is placed into the bread oven using a wooden peel. Upstairs in the bedroom a family tests out a four-poster bed by jumping on it. In the older part of the hall a woman watches over a caldron being heated on a log fire while in another part of the house she opens the doors of a box-bed. Back in the kitchen the woman makes candles by pouring beeswax into a mould while outside visitors continue to wonder around the halls formal and vegetable gardens with the gardener still at work. In a nearby field two Clydesdale horses are used to pull a roller changing to a lane where a woman leads a Dales pony carrying several sacks on its back. At The Colliery a steam whistle is blown as visitors wonder around the attraction. A man leads a pony along Francis Street past a row of miner’s cottages. Inside one of the cottages a coal fire burning surrounded by houseware and furnishings of the early 1900s including an organ. Outside visitors look in the windows of one of the five cottages while in another a woman cleans its black kitchen range while a fire burns below. Possibly in another cottage a woman sits beside her burning range making a Clippy Rug. Outside in the yard an iron bath hangs on the wall, nearby visitors looking over the cottage coalhouse and ‘Netty’ or outdoor toilet. Out in front of the cottage’s vegetable gardens with a variety of brassicas and other vegetables and salads growing there. A gate opens to reveal several sheds or Cree’s for looking after pet whippets and pigeons. Visitors walk past Pit Hill Methodist Chapel, inside s guide dressed as a minister stands at the pulpit giving a sermon. Nearby a second man begins to play a hymn on a foot-organ. Next to the chapel the village Board School with visitors standing outside as a motorbus travels past. Two small girls rush inside changes to a classroom where a woman dressed as a schoolmarm is giving a math lesson to visiting children, their parents watch from around the room. Outside in the playground or schoolyard children play traditional games of hopscotch or attempt hoop rolling. Back at The Colliery a group of children put on hardhats while a large queue waits nearby on the arrival of a bus which pulls into the colliery. Visitors walk past the Winding Engine House while others sit on a bench wearing their safety helmets as guides give a safety briefing before heading into the Mahogany Drift Mine. Inside the mine a former miner carrying a safety lamp and stick guides two children through the dark pointing out things of interest, another shows a group of children the workings at the coalface. The pithead gear in operation inside the Winding Engine House changes to visitors climbing the steps into the wooden heapstead building. The Georgian built Home Farm where in the kitchen three visitors sit watching a woman making oatcakes on the coal range. She hangs the finished oatcakes over railings hanging down from the ceiling. Back outside visitors wonder around the farm looking at various turn of the century farm animals housed in stalled or outbuildings. Back out the front of Home Farm children watch as a Durham Ox is lead past. In the farmyard a farm worker watches over a Saddleback pig while nearby ducks and geese wonder around near a pond. Watched over by a farmer a woman and child stroke the mane of a heavy horse which is attached to a wagon, other children come over to see. In a forge a blacksmith at work making an ornamental item. Back in the 1900s Town a group of visitors eagerly climb down from the upper deck of a motor bus, around them visitors walking through the town. A montage of people visiting the many attractions at Beamish including some riding a Carousel. In the 1900s Tea Room visitors sit at tables drinking tea and eating cakes, a group of older people at one table chat happily. Inside the gift shop people look at the various items that are for sale. With an electric tram passing along Ravensworth Terrace a map is superimposed over the image showing Beamish within the region. A montage of locations to visit near to Beamish including Durham Cathedral in Durham city and Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island. Back at Beamish a group of small children dressed in 1900s costumes are heled onto a tram changes to car and buses parked in the car park near to the museum entrance. Back in the 1900 Town a group of visitors ride past The Sun Inn on a horse drawn carriage. The film ends back at Pockerley Old Hall where the woman seen previously places another loaf of bread in the oven while a second woman continues to pour beeswax into candle moulds. In the bedroom again a woman opens the box-bed. Title: The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish Title: The North of England Open Air Museum Beamish, County Durham, DH9 0RG. Tel: 01207 231811. Fax: 01207 290933. Internet: http://www.merlins.demon.co.uk/beamish. Email: marketing@neoam.demons.co.uk End title: Hi-Tech Communications by Design. 0191 417 7266