Weekend at Beamish 01

Spent my last Saturday at Beamish, an open air museum of the Great North. Beamish, set in over 300 acres of beautiful countryside, vividly recreates life in the North of England in the early 1800s and 1900s. First stop is Pockerley Manor 1825, consists of the Manor House, the Old House, Pockerley Manor Garden and the Horse Yard. There have been people living at Pockerley for over 1000 years and now just only a small manor house and horse yard, this is an ancient defensive site - evidence of a far from peaceful past. The house, gardens and farm buildings are shown as they were in the 1820s when a yeoman landowner, along with his family servants and labourers, ran the surrounding estate. The old house was the original house, formed the strong-house wing of the earlier manor. The house is lit by candlelight and candle-making is often demonstrated here. The south-facing terraced gardens contain formal gardens, cultivated vegetable plots and orchards. All the plant, shrub and tree species found here were grown in the 1820s. Horses were used in the 1800s to work on the land, as pack animals and to pull carriages, gigs and carts. Clydesdale heavy horses, once common in the North of England, can be seen at home in the Horse Yard. Dales ponies are used as pack horses and the Museum also breeds Cleveland Bay horses, now a registered rare breed (more information: http://www.beamish.org.uk/guide-pmanor.html).

The Manor House...

...a nice garden, and the farm for cultivating vegetables is an elevated land just 

next to the garden...

...the normal costume wears by the women...the lady just preparing 

some decorations for a wedding to be taken place later of the day...

...typical setting of the sitting room...

...this is a dining area...

...a room to for keeping the food, just like a food store room, 

separate from the cooking area...

...the kitchen...

...the bedroom...

...the main bedroom...

...the only horse on the Horse Yard...

...the wheat field...