Remaking Beamish

Remaking Beamish is the biggest development in Beamish’s history. The exciting project includes over 25 new exhibits and attractions and is bringing a new era to the museum in the form of a 1950s Town and 1950s farm.

Visitors will be able to go back to a time in living memory, the 1950s, and share memories of what life was like. The award-winning museum will also be able to tell a more complete story of the 1820s, the foundation period of the industrial era.

The first of the Remaking Beamish developments opened in 2018, where visitors can now visit Joe the Quilters Cottage – a recreation of the ‘lost’ home of the renowned Georgian quilter. Summer 2019 saw the opening of the 1950s Welfare Hall, the first exhibit to open in the 1950s Town. The hall hosts 1950s activities for visitors to enjoy, including music, dancing, crafts, keep fit and amateur dramatics, and also features an NHS clinic.

Front Street Terrace in The 1950s Town opened in spring 2022. Visitors are now able to pop into John’s Café, the hairdresser’s, fish and chip shop and No. 2 Front Street, the recreated home of artist Norman Cornish.

In 2022 the museum also opened Spain’s Field Farm. The farm has been moved stone by stone from Weardale and rebuilt at Beamish, to show what farming life was like in the 1950s. 

The 1950s town continued to grow in 2023 with the addition of Aged Miners Homes, which will host sessions for old people living with dementia and a bowling green. Plus replicas of semi-detached council houses and a pair of police houses, where visitors be able to learn about the expansion of housing in the 1950s and what life was like on a new housing estate.

This summer (2024) even more Remaking Beamish exhibits opened, including The Drovers Tavern and Georgian pottery in the 1820s landscape. In the 1950s town the Grand cinema, toy shop, electrical store and record shop opened on 6 July. Looking ahead, Georgian accommodation is due to open in late 2024, which will allow people to spend the night at Beamish Museum for the first time!

Find out more about Remaking Beamish.