Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham is a very special place and from Monday 12th April you can once more visit, having first booked a ticket online. During lockdown work has carried on behind the scenes with the Remaking Beamish project, making sure that this extraordinary living museum continues to keep people of the North East in touch with their cultural roots and heritage. The replica Welfare Hall opened before lockdown and gives a flavour of what's to come in the 1950's town extension.
From Wikipedia:-
Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of industrial revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres (140 ha) estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.
The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has been influential on other living museums. It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional north-country and rare livestock breeds.
Beamish is one of the few places in the UK, I have never visited and still have a yearning for, but after the effort involved yesterday in getting to my local hospital and back, I am thankful just to have survived and grateful tomorrow is my 51st wedding anniversary.
ReplyDeleteNow I can learn of my history from the internet!
https://youtu.be/YwuDCIo4hUU
DeleteA follow up documentary to 'The Man Who Was Given a Gasworks (1968) - http://youtu.be/Y5yUU3PvRys) which gave an insight into the very early years of Beamish Museum.
DeleteThis footage, originally broadcast on 26th November 1986, shows just how much the Museum had grown in the 18 years since the first documentary.
Makes me reminisce a bit today post.
DeleteAs a child and young teenager in the late sixties and early seventies, I spent a lot of time living with my grand parents in the Republic of Ireland.
A small cottage on a few acres of land, every vegetable you can think of growing in neat patches around the house, no electricity and no running water. Fresh water was drawn from a pump 5 minutes walk away a few times a day, rain water was collected in barrels for washing and bathing, and in the evenings the house was lite with paraffin lamps, fuled by esso blue purchased from the white van that called weekly to the house.
Granny spent her days cooking bread and pastries on the huge open fire, and prepared and cooked the evening meal for everyone in the same way.
It was often rabbit stew, the rabbits having been snared, and it was my job to go and check the snares every morning and bring any bounty back. Often it was fish caught in the nearby river earlier that day, or occasionally even a pheasant.
Most other households in the area lived exactly the same way.
I'd spend my days living pretty wild, climbing trees, exploring bird nests, fox dens, or swimming in the river, opening fresh water clams looking (and often finding) misshaped pearls, or colledting berries that granny turned into jam.
I'd only return home when the crows started roosting in the evening, and as I'd near the house you could see the Wicklow mountains looming in the background with nothing but fields and open space in between.
Having already experienced living in a city in England, with running water and electricity, public transport and street lighting, television, and shops to buy food and treats from, I found life at my grandparents a very lonely, and very deprived experience. In truth, I longed for the hustle and bustle of city life daily.
Now I'm eternally greatful for those times and those experiences, and I feel privileged to have had them.
I've not been back for decades now, and I think I never will revisit again. Why? Well the world's moved on, and change is enevitable, and I'm frightened of what I might find, and what I might find will impact on what I now consider wonderful memories. It's safer to keep the memories locked away in my head, rather then risk 'polluting' them with what's come to pass.
It felt lonely and deprived as a kid, but I'd swap that life now for my modern C21st one in a heat beat!
'Getafix
Although a regular visitor to Beamish and proselytizer as to its virtues, I hadn't seen the video made following the 1986 Museum of the Year award before. I was struck how Frank Atkinson struggled somewhat with the hackneyed suggestions of pastiche and 'Disneyfication' back then, but that would be hard to justify now.
ReplyDeleteWhat particularly strikes me about Beamish as it's matured over time is the extent to which so many parts of it are in very regular use by locals, taking advantage of the sensible admission policy of 12 months free admission on payment of one normal entrance fee. This means there is a WI that meets regularly in the Welfare Hall, along with a Youth Club -remember them? There's a Meccano Club; a brass band meets in their own hall; the allotments get used; a group of dementia sufferers make things to sell in the shop.
When the 1950's town is completed, a bowls club will be formed, retired miners and disabled groups can enjoy an afternoon watching or playing other sports before partaking perhaps of an afternoon tea dance at the 'welfare'.
Most ambitiously of all, when constructed, the large Georgian Inn will be capable of accommodating families and groups that might include dementia sufferers for completely supported immersive experiences.
Every time I visit I always discover something new, such as a group of retired BT phone engineers lovingly building and extending the internal telephone system based on long-retired electro-mechanical Strowger equipment.
I always enjoy chatting to the staff - either in or out of role - and was amused by the bank clerk relaying a conversation with an American visitor who wanted to know 'where the museum was?' A very fitting tribute to the founder I think.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19153169.darlington-replica-locomotion-no-1-display/
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=102U-EMEd3w
ReplyDeleteThe story of Joe the Quilter's Cottage, including involvement with women at HMP Low Newton.
Off topic policing . Watching the police beating the women up in the suffragettes movie last night put me in mind of Clapham. Not so much truncheon and direct battering but still beaten with a fixed report. Then in the news this came up . https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-devon-56698186?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=16180617098032&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
ReplyDeleteInterestingly the same constabulary let off 3 police officers for smashing up a police car worth thousands. They had been racing around and caught inventing a chase to cover up their joyriding. The DCC let them off as young officers and career ahead. No mention they were deceitful fraudsters. So while this new lot get dismissed rightly too I am more concerned of the police in the what's app group. Sharing criminal behaviour amongst officers the expected to condone their activity. It's all rotten.
You will have noticed today the police outside Buck House with their batons and shields, wrestling royalists to the floor and arresting them. No? I wonder why.
ReplyDeleteLevelling up:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/11/tory-mps-claim-almost-3m-in-housing-rent-on-expenses
Revelation comes at same time as government freezes housing allowance, which could drive many tenants into debt
The basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £81,932
...
* Kevin Hollinrake, who claimed £2,925 each month from April to November while owning a share of five different rental properties in York.
* Paul Howell, elected in 2019 for the “red wall” seat of Sedgefield, who claimed £1,917.50 every month from April to November while renting out 16 different houses and flats across County Durham.
* Paul Bristow, who claimed £10,500 of his own rent on expenses between April and November while renting out three residential properties in London.
Sixteen Tory MPs rent out residential property in London, according to the parliamentary register of interests, while claiming their own rent on expenses. They include Liam Fox, Geoffrey Cox, James Cleverly and Philip Davies.
...
The Tory MP claiming the highest rent expenses is Helen Whately, minister for social care. Despite earning £113,612 as an MP and minister, she claimed £3,250 in housing rent from the taxpayer each month between April and November 2020 – £26,000 in total during those eight months.
If Whately claims £3,250 a month for the whole of 2020/21, she will receive £39,000 towards her rent during the financial year. This is higher than the estimated average annual pay of her constituents, the average full-time earnings in the UK, the average nurse’s salary – and over double the average full-time care worker’s pay in 2019/20.
Its all perfectly normal
ReplyDelete"Health Secretary Matt Hancock met former PM David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill for a "private drink" in 2019 to discuss a new payment scheme for the NHS, it has been revealed."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56706619
It really is all perfectly normal; nothing to see here, just a few edits here & there, nothing to trouble your silly little heads about:
Delete"Officials at Downing Street have been accused of rewriting much of its controversial report into racial and ethnic disparities, despite appointing an independent commission to conduct an honest investigation into inequality in the UK.
The Observer has been told that significant sections of the report published on 31 March, which were criticised and debunked by health professionals, academics, business chiefs and crime experts, were not written by the 12 commissioners who were appointed last July."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/11/downing-street-rewrote-independent-report-on-race-experts-claim
page updated - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/offending-behaviour-programmes-and-interventions
ReplyDeletemaking homelessness YOUR fault - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-reduction-act-duty-to-refer-policy-framework
"Rules and guidance for prison and probation staff detailing their duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act to reduce homelessness and support rehabilitation."
This policy framework sets out duties, rules and general guidance for prisons and probation staff for meeting their statutory duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 to support those individuals who are at risk of homelessness in England.
DeleteSince 1 October 2018, prison and probation staff have had a statutory responsibility to refer homeless individuals (or those at risk of homeless within the next 56 days) to a Local Authority. This is under Section 10 of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
The policy framework also includes:
a standard referral form
step-by-step guide to making referrals to local housing authorities
process flowcharts
background material to answer common questions
a section on the reciprocal arrangements in place in Wales through the National Offender Pathway
The Policy framework replaces the previous internal operational guidance that was issued.
The policy will be reviewed in October 2022.
The juxtaposition of policy versus reality makes no fucking sense whatsoever. There are no suitable or available resources for housing folk, but if YOU don't meet your statutory obligation to make a referral, it will be YOUR fault.
DeleteIts simply a case of plenty paperwork, plenty forms, plenty red tape to cover one's arse - and no suitable roof to cover anyone's head.
“Extraordinarily, one prisoner with disabilities was still being held more than a year beyond the date that his release had been approved.” HM Inspector of Prisons.
"Paul Howell, elected in 2019 for the “red wall” seat of Sedgefield, who claimed £1,917.50 every month from April to November while renting out 16 different houses and flats across County Durham."
What are the chances that not a single one of those 16 properties will be housing anyone referred by prison or probation staff, or anyone in receipt of housing benefit?
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/05/government-by-landlord
DeleteGovernment by Landlord
By
Solomon Hughes
Boris Johnson's government is dominated by landlords, many of whom own multiple properties and make a fortune from rent. It isn't a fluke that they support policies which harm tenants – it's class politics.
from Howell's register of interests at jan 2020:
DeleteLand and property portfolio: (i) value over £100,000 and/or (ii) giving rental income of over £10,000 a year
Two flats in County Durham: (i) and (ii). (Registered 09 January 2020)
Five houses in Durham: (i) and (ii). (Registered 09 January 2020)
Nine houses in Darlington: (i) and (ii). (Registered 09 January 2020)
Cameron opens his trap, saying he hasn't broken any rules...
ReplyDelete“However, I have reflected on this at length,” he said. “There are important lessons to be learned. As a former prime minister, I accept that communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation.”
Really? Is that the from same Eton playbook as Thou Shalt Not Get caught Shagging a Pig's Head?
FT says: "The government’s bailout schemes to support employment have come under scrutiny by the National Audit Office, which in October warned that taxpayers could face up to £26bn in losses on the bounceback scheme because of fraud and corporate defaults.... The FT revealed last year that Greensill Capital, a supply chain finance company which recently collapsed, had advanced government-backed loans under CLBILS to Gupta’s companies — some with only a handful of employees — using the loosely defined structure of his GFG Alliance group to borrow multiples of a £50m cap on each borrower."
ReplyDeleteSo when Cameron's arselicking failed Greensill still found a way to access substantial amounts of public cash via government covid loans. We just don't know how many multiples of £50m were accessed!
* CBILS = Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
* CLBILS = Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme
* To date some 1.6m facilities, worth nearly £73bn, have been approved as part of the three schemes, according to the latest Treasury statistics.
P.S. The wounded Sanjeev Gupta plays the innocent hero while claiming "no jobs will be lost on my watch".
Sanjeev Gupta - a brief overview of his UK activities:
ReplyDelete* In 2013, Liberty House Group entered the UK through the purchase of Mir Steel UK in Newport, South Wales
* In 2015 Gupta purchased from administration the UK assets and business of the former Caparo Industries Plc
* In March 2016 Liberty House reached an agreement for the purchase of the last two previously mothballed steel manufacturing sites in Scotland from Tata Steel UK.
* In April 2016, when Tata Steel UK announced its intention to sell its UK based operations, Gupta launched a daring bid for the business
* In October 2016, Liberty House launched its steel recycling division called Liberty Metals Recycling.
* In November 2016, Gupta finalised his purchase of Tungsten Bank, and renamed it Wyelands Bank, after the country house estate Wyelands he owns near Chepstow.
* In November 2016 Liberty House entered into exclusive negotiations with Tata Steel UK for the acquisition of its speciality steels business based in West Yorkshire
* In December 2016, the Gupta-led GFG Alliance completed the acquisition of Britain's last aluminium smelter at Fort William in Lochaber, along with the hydro-power plants at Kinlochleven and Fort William
So in 3 years there was a lot of acquisition of industrial assets at the lowest possible price. He also owns many other industrial facilities around the world as well as more banks, e.g. in April 2019, Gupta acquired a second bank which he renamed the Commonwealth Trade Bank.
So, after saving almost 3,000 jobs in the UK to great punlic acclaim, nothing is what it seems in this murky world of business & finance. If he owns his own banks, why go to Greensill for the money?
The FT reports: "Loans to Sanjeev Gupta’s company from Greensill Capital that were later sold to Credit Suisse investors were made on the basis of suspect invoices that have raised suspicions of fraud.... The Financial Times has seen a series of invoices that Gupta’s Liberty Commodities trading group provided to Greensill in exchange for cash, including documents purporting to show it sold products to four European metals businesses: KME Germany, RPS Siegen, Voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl and Salzgitter Flachstahl.
All of these companies deny doing business with Gupta’s group. “We have nothing to do with Liberty,” said Ulrich Becker, chief executive of KME Germany. “We did not trade with them in the past, we are not trading with them now, and we will not trade with them. We are copper producers and don’t even know what we would have bought from them.”
Perhaps its just perfectly normal & we shouldn't worry our silly little heads about the things these very clever men are up to?