The Colliery Village recreates a typical pit village of the 1900s. At its heart stands a stone Engine House containing the impressive Steam Winder which was built in 1855 by J & G Joicey and Co. for the Beamish Colliery 2nd Pit. At the rear of the winding house is a Jack Engine which was used to lower heavy equipment down the mine shaft.
Next to the engine house is the wooden Heapstead
Building and screens from Ravensworth Park Drift Mine.
Cages, each carrying two tubs of coal, were drawn up the
shaft and tipped onto the screens for sorting. Coal was then
tipped into the wagons below and stones were deposited onto
the pit heap. If you are lucky enough, one of the miners
will be present to talk you through a day in the life of a
mine worker.
The Drift Mine
at Beamish was originally opened in
the 1850s and was called Mahogany Drift. The mine was closed in 1958
but re-opened in part to allow visitors to experience life down the
pit. Conditions were generally very cramped, very wet and generally
dangerous places. The tubs of coal were pulled to the surface by pit
ponies or rope haulage.
The row of company owned
Pit Cottageswas brought to Beamish from Hetton le Hole
near Sunderland. They were part of a row of of 27 houses build in the
1860s and housed pitmen's families until the late 1970s.
The Chapel was originally built at Pit Hill in 1854.
This chapel represents the more conventional and respectable Wesleyan
Methodists. The Primitive Methodists, especially strong in pit
villages, had a reputation for radicalism and independence.
Beamish Board
School was first opened in
1892 at East Stanley, Co. Durham. The school housed some 200 children
in three classrooms. The school regime was hard, based on strict
discipline backed by the use of the cane or strap ensuring that
pupils 'knew their place'. Typical school yard games of the era were
marbles, conkers, hopscotch, skipping and booling.