We got to Beamish about 10:30 and it was already doing good business then, including plenty of the expected school parties. A massive site which reminded me of Disneyworld but a Disneyworld of the past North East of Britain.

Beamish was the reason we went to the Newcastle area. I'm very fond of places like Beamish which give an impression of times past, of times lost. Beamish has recreations of Northern life in various periods of history.

We went to the pit village first, seeing the cottages and the chapel and the pithead and puffing steam trains and the stables (poor horses and men who went down the pit). A sense of what it was like, a valuable sense. A display about safety lamps and mine tragedies conveyed something of the hardships miners faced - harder perhaps to convey the community spirit they had due to those hardships?

We then caught a bus round to then 1950s estate (Beamish is being extended) and I felt very nostalgic about what was in the houses there. I was very amused in the police station to see police procedure manuals written by one Moriarty! There was a bowling green and crazy golf, plenty for people to do.

On our way to a civilised meal at the Beamish Park Hotel we checked out the Ravensworth Arms, nicely close to where we were staying. It was nicely busy too with a very loud reception so we were very glad we hadn't booked to go there this evening!