Volunteer Projects update
28th November 2011
As readers of the blog will no doubt be aware, the Transport & Industry department at Beamish is a great beneficiary of volunteer labour and expertise. The rest of the Museum also, of course, enjoys a great amount of volunteer contribution, but I will confine this blog to those activities more related to the work I do and know about – see more of the volunteer work on the forthcoming ‘Volunteering’ pages on the main Museum website.
Volunteers contribute either as part of the Friends organisation or directly to members of staff, such as Dave Young does. This creates a wide range of activity and it is one in which we are shortly to invest in quite heavily as we embark on reconstruction of existing workshops and add in new and larger facilities to enable this work to take place on a much bigger scale for both staff and volunteer projects and with an appointed person to assist with the workflow (keep an eye on the Beamish job page on the main website). This should enable an even bigger impact to be made by all those who give so generously of their time and knowledge.
As an example of the range of work being currently carried out in the quite small workshops at Beamish, here is a sample of what the Friends are currently working on, some of which is in conjunction with contractors managed by myself, some of which is pretty much autonomous.
Below: The cobble rammer! The device in the foreground has been made by the Friends team at the request of the street mason who is volunteering his skills down at Rowley Station as part of the group working there.
Below: This is a coal box to be used with the Gallopers and to compliment the coal shipping box previously restored by the Friends.
Below: Great progress is being made with the Hodbarrow side tipper. As seen in an earlier post the body is progressing well and the wheelsets have been completed pending painting. This is the chassis, now in a coat of gunmetal grey.
Below: With the roadsweeper completed the same team is taking over the restoration of this water cart. It has seen some work carried out by Museum staff and Dave Young (to manufacture various missing parts) and so has been seen in these reports previously. It will now be subject of the Friend’s treatment to turn it into a working vehicle once again – red and blue livery as has become standard for such vehicles without an established provenance.
Below: Colin Slater filled some photographic gaps by supplying these views, showing (below) the lettering of the signs which will adorn the Colliery Railway gates.
Below: Colin also supplied a couple of views showing the street sweep departing for its new temporary home in the Town Carriage House – seen below with some of the team who worked on it and also in action with John and Lion. With no provenance for such vehicles (as many have been reclaimed from scrap condition!) the livery and lettering adopted has been chosen as ‘typical’ and representative – we simply do not know what it was originally to this sweep. Blue and red are attractive as well as commonly used, and Beamish RDC (Rural District Council) seems appropriate to a site of several hundred acres!
Recent Comments