A few, the Drift Mine, Home Farm and Pockerley Manor were
here already. All are buildings filled with objects, furniture
and machinery - real things from our extensive collections.
Scholarship and detailed research is behind everything we
do.
You will find here no glass cases and few labels. Within
the buildings you will find costumed people who are trained
to talk to visitors and to answer their questions. The staff
are proud of their heritage. The people at Beamish believe
that the reality of human beings is better than technological
virtual reality. It is this belief that distinguishes them
from other museums.
Beamish stands on over three hundred acres of pleasantly rolling
wooded land, crossed by the Beamish Burn, some nine miles
to the south west of Newcastle upon Tyne. Development of the
complex has been planned somewhat along the lines of well-known
Scandinavian 'open air' or 'folk' museums. Buildings are re-erected
in appropriate settings on the site, followed by their restoration
and furnishing. It differs, however, from such museums by
extending further these techniques to significant buildings
and structures of social and industrial interest.
The phrase 'open air' is intended to indicate that the objects
are shown in their appropriate buildings, rather than in glass
cases as in a traditional museum. By this technique the object
is shown in its full social context and environment, instead
of being divorced from its surroundings and associated material.
It is also this Museum's remit to show complete areas of operation
rather than merely re-creating single buildings as is sometimes
the case in other 'open air' museums.
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