Days (and Nights) on the Toon (Newcastle); Still Beaming from visiting Beamish!

Beamish all aboard! This is the only way to travel back in time

On the way back from our Newcastle trip, we just had to drop off at Beamish.  Beamish is an open air museum dedicated to portraying the history of working class people of the North East. Set in 300 acres of countryside in County Durham, Beamish is a time travel trip – backwards!  We’ve always wanted to go, and we wasn’t disappointed!  We went quite early and already the queues were long.  Fast moving though: I would estimate we queued for about 40 minutes.

Beamish a trip down memory lane literally

At first glance it appears quite expensive to get in, but there are so many different places, shops and houses to go into, not to mention tram rides that if you were charged for each one, it would add up to considerably more.

Beamish step inside the past! Unbelievably you can go into these houses and see what the past was REALLY like!

It was a lovely day.  The sun was actually shining for once as we waited for the tram.  The expanse of the place is massive and you certainly do need the tram to get to the fartherest places.  My only regret is that we didn’t get to see some parts of Beamish because of the lack of time (we had to travel back to Manchester and didn’t want to get stuck in the rush hour).  You need a full day really, or even a couple to see everything.  Special discounts and tickets were available; ideal if you live closer.

 

 

Beamish Mr Jones the Dentist gives a talk and would have given a demo...but no one volunteered!

One of the many fabulous features about Beamish is the people dressed in period costume, giving talks and demonstrations, placing the whole place in context and adding greatly to our understanding of the past.

amazing attention to detail everywhere (Mr Jones the Dentist's house, who was quite well off compared to others)

More Beamish pics tomorrow

Read about the fabulous open museum that is Beamish HERE

More of my Newcastle trip posts;

Art at the Baltic: Sarah Sze ‘Tilting Planet’

St Nicholas Gothic Cathedral

Out and about

Bessie Surtees House

More HERE

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Nights (and Days) on the Toon (Newcastle) Sculpture

Angel of the North, a missed photo opportunity

There are many pieces of interesting sculpture around Newcastle.  Antony Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’  (completed 1998) welcomes you, standing tall on the A1 and the A157  road Gateshead.  Unfortunately for us we were on the wrong side coming, and the road was diverted away from the sculpture coming back ggggrrr!  We would have liked to have gone up to it for a closer look, and some good pictures! (like this one).

angel_of_the_north

Each city usually has one or two statues of Queen Victoria (and usually in black), This one by Alfred Gilbert, unveiled in 1993, Newcastle is no exception. image from here

Victoria satue newcastle

We came across these three statues called ‘Man with Potential Selves’ by Sean Henry;-

 

sean henry sculpture1

There are 3 of these, but the second one isn’t a very good pic.

The one we couldn’t quite manage to snap, is from THIS site

man with potential selves

On the Quayside are these statues:  One is called ‘Siren’ ( a vague reference to the sea), but I can’t find out what the other is called. (N.B. It’s called River God) 

siren

 The sculpture looks like it pays reference to the slave trade.  But it is unusual because it is just the torso.

quayside sculpture 'River God'

More Newcastle trip posts;

St Nicholas Gothic Cathedral

Out and about

Bessie Surtees House

More HERE