As an avid history fan for my 21st birthday my Dad took me to Beamish Museum in Country Durham for the day and I absolutely loved it. I hadn't been since I was younger as its about half an hour to 45 minute drive away from me and well... I don't drive.
Beamish is an open air museum which recreates life in the North East of England from the 1820's, 1900s and 1940's with real recreations from houses, farms, schools and dentists. One of my favourite parts about Beamish is its so big and accurate that you really feel like you're walking around a 1920's house. My Dad and I went at the beginning of the month way before the summer holidays started so it was relatively quiet but it can get super busy hence why we didn't go on my birthday during the May bank holiday. Our ticket was around £19 each for an adult ticket as unfortunately and sadly I am no longer a student I am a graduate but with that you get unlimited access for a year - I've already said I want to go around Christmas.
As you walk around the open air museum you are transported into a time long ago. I am always keen to learn and my dad seems to just store information in his brain. Any question I had he knew the answer to or we worked it out together and that's all the fun of it. I learnt about maids, living conditions, transport and loads more!
One of my favourite parts about the museum is it really goes to extreme lengths to make it an immersive experience. You can jump on the buses or the tram or even the steam train and it all feels like you're back in time.
As soon as we got there we walked along towards the colliery as I knew if I didn't go down the mine straight away I knew I wouldn't want to later. Such a cool part of the day was going down the mine, you go in a small group with a guide and spend about 10-15 minutes down there learning about working conditions for miners.
After that we went to the pit head wheel where we were shown a demonstration of the machinery that was used to power the lift the miners would use to enter deep into the mine. Followed by walking around the old mining village that was next door. This village is one of my favourite parts of the museum as you get to walk around the houses looking at all the interior and the weird choices they made back in the day. But also the school is here and the staff in their are always wonderful and its always weird to see that kids used to write on slate with chalk, none of this macbook nonsense.
We then headed to one of the best part of the day - the farm. It's a small 1940's themed farm I do believe and I love it. There was chickens running around everywhere and cows. Molly loves cows. Unfortunately there was no sheep as far as I was aware but we did get to look inside the farm houses.
Once we were finished looking around the farm we jumped on the bus and headed to the steam train - you jump on the train and it travels a couple of hundreds yards my father says "the journey is short but enjoyable" you really get to experience the bumpy ride of a steam train. This is just one of the things that makes Beamish so enjoyable for me it's so interactive.
Just before lunch we headed to what I like to call the "fancy house" this was up near the waggonways it had the most beautiful garden complete with gardeners who work year round to keep it pristine despite the level of tourism.
Finally it was time for lunch. Dad had prepared an absolutely unreal picnic it was so good I miss it. We sat in the field opposite the town centre. It was glorious.
We finished our day in the sun walking around the city centre recreation I love this part its where all the shops are - we watched a guy make hard boiled sweets, looked at cars, a printers, we went into a really fancy bank and even went into an old school photography shop which I loved! The size of their camera was actually madness I would not have wanted to take that on location with me. But the place that scared me the most was an old hall that was basically the illuminatis meeting place.
I had the nicest day with my dad and I can't wait to go back as over the summer they have some cool events on! Thank you Beamish for a wonderful day out celebrating my birthday.
Jess x
