Friends of Beamish Museum.Welcome to The Friends of Beamish.
Friday Evening Meetings
Next Meeting - 28th September 2013 - Nostalgic Views of the North - John Moreels
Coming Shortly
Dementia Awareness Week at Beamish - 20th to 25th May 2013
For the third year in succession, Beamish is working with the Alzheimer’s Society to support their annual Dementia Awareness Week™.
Beamish will be the venue for the Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Singing for the Brain’ sessions on Monday 20th and Wednesday 22nd May . Local school pupils and care home residents have been invited to take part and enjoy sessions of music and singing together. Visitors are also welcome to join in with the fun too.
A 1950s style Tea Dance will be held in the Museum’s newly re-opened Hetton Silver Band Hall on Saturday, 25th May. Staff and volunteers from the Chester-le-Street branch of the Alzheimer’s Society will be in one of the Museum’s Pit Cottages with information and advice about services in the region for people living with and caring for someone with dementia.
Beamish works extensively with older people in the region by facilitating reminiscence and creative sessions, both in the community and at the Museum, and providing support and resources for organisations and care staff working with older people.
Dementia Awareness Week™ aims to raise awareness and understanding of dementia and to encourage people to ‘remember the person’ behind the dementia. As part of the week the Alzheimer’s Society will also be running its ‘Dementia Friends’ training at Beamish and Museum staff and volunteers will be participating in this. Spaces are available for members of the public to attend these sessions too. For more information visit www.dementiafriends.org.uk.
The SOS on the Road (on site)
The SOS bus featured at the Beamish Great North Steam Fair and shared the limelight with the newly re-painted replica Daimler. The photograph above shows the beginning of this lengthy restoration.
Davy’s Fried Fish Shop
The Fried Fish Shop has been named in honour of the brothers’ shop which traded in Winlaton Mill for seventy years. The business was set up by their grandfather in 1937, then run by their mother and father before being operated by Brian and Ramsay themselves until 2007.
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Davy’s Fried Fish Shop at Beamish
No picture of pit village life in the north east is complete without a fish & chip shop. In Edwardian times they thrived in working class areas, drawing in people with a sociable atmosphere full of gossip, popular with women, children and young lads. With evening opening and eat-in areas they were particularly attractive to courting couples in the days before pubs and cinemas welcomed women !
Davy’s Fried Fish Shop has been built in The Pit Village at Beamish in the heart of the community, close to the Methodist chapel and the Board school. It is typical of a type found throughout the region, which often began life as Victorian commercial buildings and were later converted to the new role.
In the main room, where fish & chips are fried and sold, there’s a 1920s range by Mabbott of Manchester. This range was used until the 1960s in a small village near Chester. It’s greatest historical association was during WW2 when locally stationed GIs regularly ‘borrowed’ it to cook thousands of doughnuts for their homesick countrymen.
The other range was made by Nuttalls around 1934 and reflects the huge growth in the business before WW2. This range remained in use until 2007 at the Davy’s Chip Shop at Winlaton Mill, near Gateshead. The delicious Beamish fish & chips are fried in the Nuttalls and Mabbott ranges, in real beef dripping, then wrapped in specially printed newspaper, of course !
There’s a choice of where to eat too – either in the adjacent Saloon, with scrubbed pine tables and benches or in the sunshine at picnic tables just outside.
Richard Evans, Museum Director, said “Davy’s is an exciting addition to the Museum, telling more of the story of North Eastern pit village life in Edwardian times. It’s a chance for visitors to reminisce while enjoying a real taste of the past - we hope they will agree this really is Beamish at its best.”
What's on during 2013?
Keep checking for special events at Beamish
See the full list of special events planned for 2013 at Beamish.
Always a Warm Welcome from the Friends.
No matter where you live. We have members from all around Britain and in other parts of the world. You don't have to live locally to join The Friends.
An Independent Registered Charity.
The Friends of Beamish is an Independent Registered Charity protecting and re-creating the regions past for future generations to enjoy. We also assist the official staff of the Museum, where required, with voluntary workers from our membership.
Friends' Membership Deal.
Benefits of Joining the Friends:
- Friendship.
- Free admission to the Museum.
- Free quarterly magazine (worth £3.00).
- Free copy of the Museum guidebook (worth £4.95).
- A Gold Membership Package gives you free admission as often as you like PLUS half price admission for two guests on each visit.
- Social events and special behind the scenes visits around the site.
- 10% discount in the Museum's catering and retail outlets.
- Special interest tours.
- Helps support our volunteers and our work for the Museum.
Friends of Beamish Membership Details.
- Adult Individual Membership: £25.00.
- Senior Citizen Individual: £20.00.
- Adult Partners (at same address): £40.00.
- Senior Citizen Partners: £32.00.
- Family (1) - Adult and 2 children: £40.00.
- Family (2) - 2 Adults and 2 children: £58.00.
- Young person (5-21 years): £20.00.
- Gold Membership Package: £50.00.
- Members Brooch- each: £1.50.
NOTE: fees are payable in pounds Sterling only.
NON-UK members can arrange payment by contacting the Friends' Office.
