Lads trip to Beamish

         16th May 2017

As usual we meet up at Leeds Railway Station, today we are boarding the 10:43 Newcastle train heading for the town of Chester le Street, we will be a group of five. Once we reach this town we have a short distance to walk in order to catch a bus that will take our party to Beamish Musium some few miles away.

We arrived at Chester le Street a few minutes after midday the bus was due to leave at 13 minutes past, so it was a rather hurried walk in order to locate the bus stop, a few people gave us advice on the quickest way, but it was too late ,on arrival at the market place bus station, temporary roadworks lead to confusion, all the bus stands had been relocated which brought on an instant panic .

Normality was soon re established with a visit to Brenda's Cafe over the road , several missed opportunity to catch a bus came and went , this was all in order to obtain a 25% discount on the admission price to Beamish and a sausage butty, thanks Brenda.

Shorty after 1:20 pm we boarded the number 28 bus that took us to the doors of Beamish.

Admission fees paid we now begin to explore the delights of this wonderful setting, a gentle stroll along the footpath that runs alongside the tramway soon finds us in the depths of Nostalgia, where we find a small village settlement which included a church a row of terraced cottages and the local school, a few hundred yards away is the Pit Yard and its activities, much to be explored here.

Leaving the school class rooms behind we now venture forwards to a different location, this time it is the setting of an old waggon works and a railway goods depot also included is a small village railway station and its operatives etc.

We now move on and pass the small fairground and an opportunity for the kids to have some enjoyment, after a short while we now begin to enter the small township that as been created here at Beamish and what a wonderful experience we had here. A visit to the dentist followed with an appointment at the solicitor's office then over the road to the bank and the sweet shop then finally check at the garage to make sure the repairs have been carried out. Now it's back over the road to catch an open top tram onto our next port of call , late lunch.

This was a bag of chips enjoyed at Davy's Chippy, from here we now visited the coal mine and view its operations which included the screening and loading of the coal into the wagons and the area around the mine shaft.

Our final attraction of the day was to take a ride on the very old steam driven railway experience called the Elephant, what joy we had on this short journey. 

From here it was just a short walk back towards the main building and our exit from this enthralling adventure here at Beamish.

From here it was a short bus ride back to reality and a rather large meal at Brenda's Cafe before we boarded the train back to Leeds.

What another great day out with the Lads 

Cheers.