Relive the early days of Beamish Museum in this rare cine film which goes back to the 1970s
Fantastic footage shows the earliest days of tourist attraction
An incredible piece of cine film shows Beamish in the earliest days of the famous North East museum.
The North East Film Archive has shared the one-minute footage with us and it is part of a longer 10-minute piece which was originally recorded by the Chester-le-Street Amateur Cine Society more than 50 years ago.
Beamish - The Living Museum of the North is now a multi award-winning attraction but back in 1971, an exhibition called Museum in the Making opened at Beamish Hall.
Visitors could attend a classic car rally and look around Home Farm, which was still being renovated. There’s also a focus on the renovation and testing of steam engines and the electric tramway in operation.
Our thanks go to NEFA for a fantastic glimpse into Beamish’s past and it is one of many clips that it has shared with us over the years.
Others include;
Golden memories of 1960s pigeon racing, showing thousands of birds being released by Wearside pigeon fanciers at the start of a 1962 race in Lille in France.
Queen Elizabeth II visiting Sunderland in 1993, showing the city as she looked around the St Peter’s Riverside site and unveiled a new sculpture.
South Tyneside's roads and how they looked on a busy Saturday 70 years ago.
Her Majesty the Queen on visit to South Shields in 1977 during her Silver Jubilee celebrations.
The day after the 1914 Bombardment - rare cine footage captures the devastation of the attack on Hartlepool.
Our thanks go to the excellent North East Film Archive library which has a vast collection.
Its team has painstakingly taken on the task of preserving, cataloguing, and digitising these vital collections of reminders of our past.
NEFA has a huge catalogue of over 70,000 items of original film, video tape, and born-digital material. Its team painstakingly preserves, catalogues, and digitises these vital collections of reminders of our past.
NEFA operates the The Yorkshire Film Archive in York, and the North East Film Archive, in Middlesbrough. It also has a new rental platform which you can find at https://yfanefa.vhx.tv/
If you have cine film memories of Sunderland and County Durham in the past, we would love to hear from you. Email [email protected] and tell us more.