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CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK 7FSunday Gazette-Mail

July 10, 2011 7FTravel&Leisure

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Coal history, an ocean awayMining museum in England’s northeast delights kids and adults

By Jon OffredoFor the Sunday Gazette-Mail

B EAMISH VILLAGE, England —The minute Derek Berry-man sees his prospective

miners dressed in matchingcheckered shirts accented byscuffed hardhats several sizestoo large, he knows they couldnever work.

“I’m sorry to say, but you’renot old enough to be in themines,” he tells about a dozen7- and 8-year-olds from BoothamJunior School in York.

Berryman tries to stress that.And he tries and tries, but dur-ing the next 30 minutes andthrough the winding under-ground paths of the MahoganyDrift Mine — the students havenone if it. Their stubbornnessand childlike enthusiasm forgritty and dangerous manual la-bor is evident from the start.

“You know a coal miner’sshift is eight hours long,” Berry-man tells them, as he sits on astool next to an undergroundcoal seam. “It’s hard work, muchlonger than school. It is in thedark. And there are rats that willnibble on your dinner.”

“But school is seven hours —that’s almost eight,” the kids re-tort. Berryman chuckles at be-ing nonplussed. He changes thetopic.

Sometimes, even an open-airhistory museum that spans 300

JON OFFREDO photos | For the Sunday Gazette-Mail

Derek Berryman points down the dark shaft of the Mahogany Drift Mine before leading a group of youngsters down to learn about howcoal was mined in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

W A N T T O G O ?

Beamish, The LivingMuseum of the NorthINFO: Check the websitewww.beamish.org.uk/ for detailed in-structions on how to get to the mu-seum from a variety of locations.From London, take the train fromKings Cross and get off at Durham.The trip is about 21/2 hours. The 128bus provides a direct link from theDurham City Center. Buses run hourlyand can be caught near the train sta-tion. There’s also information on thegeneral website about where to stayand what hotels are in the area.HOURS: Open during the summerseason seven days a week, 10 a.m.to 5 p.m.TICKETS: Prices vary, and to get thecheapest tickets, book well in ad-vance. Tickets the day before can runquite high and the cheapest returntickets (to and from Durham) runaround 110 pounds ($175). Singletickets run around 77 pounds ($123).WHERE TO STAY: The NewcastleMarriott Hotel MetroCentre in New-castle is 99 pounds ($158) a night.The Waggonway bus service 28/28A offers regular buses from New-castle City Centre every 30 minutes.WHAT ELSE: While in the area, besure to check out Newcastle, whichis only a quick train ride or bus awayfrom Beamish. Also check out his-toric Durham with its beautiful cob-bled streets and majestic cathedral.

acres and three distinct timeperiods isn’t large enough tocontain an 8-year-old’s imagi-nation.

But at the award-winningBeamish museum in NortheastEngland, that’s OK. It’s sort ofthe point. You get lost in timeand young or old, the imagina-tion runs wild.

About 420,000 people got lostin time last year. So, too, havethe countless others who havewalked through the museumsince it opened in 1970.

The museum is ever-expand-ing and boasts detailed outdoorexhibits like the Colliery and PitVillage, but also an Edwardiantown with an amazing sweetsshop and a pub featuring tastyales, as well as a working farmreminiscent of earlier times, andan Edwardian railway station.

Entrance costs 16 pounds(about $25.50) and is free for ayear after one paid visit. Beamishis about three hours by trainfrom London, and the trip is cer-tainly worth it. Nearby Newcas-tle and Durham have plenty ofhotels to offer overnight guests,and those road tripping acrossEurope and passing through theU.K. can use the museum’s owncaravanning grounds.

It’s easy to walk to and fromthe different exhibits, and the

museum itself is partly handi-capped-accessible. There are alsorestored trams that run through-out the museum and replicabuses from the early 1900s.

Trams arrive every 20 minutesand are colored by old-timestained-glass advertisements forNewcastle Brown Ale, newspa-pers long since dead and otherlocal businesses of years past.

Conductors and drivers (aswell as the entire town’s popu-lation) are dressed in periodclothing and speak as if itweren’t a role. Inside the hous-es, shops, churches and outsidein the gardens every little detailis fine-tuned to the ethos andatmosphere of that particularperiod.

With all that said, the miningshaft and pit village are a must-see and a good starting point.It’s about a five-minute walkfrom the museum’s entrance.

The mine tour starts at thelamp cabin right outside theshaft. A few yards away there’sa fully operational steam-runwinding engine — which soundsout a whistle from time to time— signaling different things forthe miners.

Down the dirt path, about 20yards away, is the pit village,complete with chapel, school-house and pit cottages that de-

pict the lives of an Irish immi-grant family, Methodist familyand a miner’s widow.

Eileen and William Disley,from Wigan, and their 10-month-old Chihuahua, Jet, were stand-ing in the garden behind a min-er’s cottage. While the tiny dogwas busy hopping about, Eileentook photographs of a hand-builtcage containing several singingcanaries. Her husband stoodnext to her and took in the In-dustrial Revolution-era atmos-phere on clear day in the Eng-lish countryside.

“Well, I don’t have a big so-cial life,” he said. “When I’m notworking, I’m looking at howother people worked and howthey used to live.”

This is the Disleys secondvisit to Beamish, and for this tripthey allocated a caravan tripand much more time.

Eileen and William both saidthey are hugely interested in thehistory of the Northeast, espe-cially since it mimics that of theirown in the Northwest. Coal min-ing and the rail industry are twothings the regions have in com-mon. And the region’s history ofcoal isn’t that dissimilar fromWest Virginia’s. Many of thesame labor, environment andpolitical issues all apply.

“Coal mining and the indus-

try is old and established. It’slike a political or religious belief,”William said.

Back in the mine, Berrymantells students about how minersfound seams of coal. He explainsback then it was possible to loadparts up with dynamite, setting offan explosion that would get min-ers closer to the seam.

He tells students the coalbosses preferred that methodand generally had no regardfor their workers’ health backthen. But the miners still pre-ferred the pickax and shovel toavoid the coal dust.

“And can we breathe in coaldust?” Berryman asks.

“Nooo,” the students reply innear perfect unison.

Since the museum opened,Berryman, a native Teesider, has

explored the history of his fa-ther’s and grandfather’s era.

But he never expected to dothat as an employee, helpingyoung students learn about theirhistory.

“I never actually thoughtabout applying after I retired. Ijust saw an ad on the websiteand thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got to gofor this,’ ” he says outside themine, after the tour is finishedand the students toss their hard-hats back into the pile.

The only other job he appliedfor after retiring from the fireservice was as a teaching assis-tant.

In a way he says he has thebest of both worlds. He guess-es he’s been down the mineshaft plenty of times, eventhough it’s only his 10th week

on the job he absolutely loves.“I wanted something to do af-

ter I retired, but not stressful,”he said. “I wanted a challenge,to do something different and tohave fun.”

His tour with the students isalmost at an end, so at the clos-ing moment, 50 feet belowground in a dark and dampshaft — lantern still glowing —Berryman finally indulges theyoungsters and announces:

“We have an opening for twolads here in the mine.”

There’s an excitable commo-tion upfront.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh! I’ll do it!” pipeup several excited voices in thedarkness.

Jon Offredo, a former Gazette intern,is a graduate student in England. He

may be emailed at joffredo@gmail.com.

In Beamish’s re-creation of an Edwardian-era high street, there are plenty of places for tourists to visit,including an old Barclay’s bank, a sweets shop and a pub with traditional ales.

Boomers, PD and the Smith-tones and Uncle Henry’s Fa-vorites.

The festival includes banjo,fiddle, band and flatfoot dancecontests and workshops.

Also offered are arts andcrafts, storytelling, bingo, art forfun, yoga, basket making, slowjams and split bottom wovenstool making.

The gate opens at 1 p.m. July

29. Rates for the festival andcamping can be found atwww.wvculture.org or by calling304-438-3005.

New Civil War appMANASSAS, Va. — A smart-

phone application providing aguided tour of Manassas battle-field is making its debut thismonth, just in time for the 150thanniversary of the Civil War’sfirst great battle.

The app announced Tuesdayby the Civil War Trust uses GPStechnology and Apple’s iPhoneplatform. The “Bull Run Battle

App” will help guide touriststhrough the northern Virginiabattleground using audio, videoand animated content.

The new application will makeits formal debut Tuesday at Man-assas National Battlefield. Thetrust will be joined by state offi-cials, as well as representativesfrom Prince William County andlocal tourism officials.

The re-enactment of the FirstBattle of Manassas will be heldJuly 23 and 24, with thousandsof re-enactors expected to par-ticipate.

— FROM STAFF, WIRE REPORTS

NOTES______—

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