The periods that Beamish aims to portray, cover mainly the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century. At present the period areas in the museum represent the early 1800s leading up to 1825, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened with George Stephenson’s Locomotion, and the early 1900s leading up to 1913 immediately prior to the First World War. These periods were particularly selected in order to represent the importance of certain aspects of regional history and development.
The 1820s
The early 19th century was a period of great potential, though also of social turmoil. After the French Revolution, Britain had been at war with France; Nelson was dead, having won his famous battle at Trafalgar, and Napoleon had been defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At home the nation with George IV ruled was a restless one with plots and rebellions throughout the realm.
Britain, however, led the world in the production of coal, lead, iron, chemicals, glass, pottery and textiles. Shipbuilding was also coming into its own, though real growth in the region was not seen until the 1850s.
The North East pioneered in agricultural developments, particularly in livestock breeding. The Culley brothers and Colling brothers introduced new ideas of stock breeding and by the 1820s Northumberland, especially, and Durham were being held up, by the improvers as examples of the ‘new farming’. Short horn cattle that were bred in the region were exported all over the country.
In the North East, coal production in the 18th century had been concentrated along the banks of the Rivers Tyne and Wear, where the pits were relatively shallow and transport via river to sea was easy. As these seams were exhausted or flooded, improved pumping methods and the development of the safety lamp allowed for a rapid increase in the number of pits being sunk to a great depth and also further inland.
The increased demand for coal lead to the development of waggonways and pit communities throughout the North East. It was these early waggonways or ‘coal roads’ that the Stockton and Darlington Railway was built to replace. Opened in 1825, it was the worlds first public steam hauled passenger railway, its success leading to the rapid adoption of railways throughout the country and the world.