T&I News 24 2020...

T&I News 24 2020…

/ November 12, 2020 / Leave a comment / News

In this post I’ve been asked by Matthew Henderson, the man behind many of the new products that are now available to purchase from our physical and online shops, if I would reference some of the transport related products that are available to buy and which may be of interest as Christmas approaches… Over to Matthew:

A wide range of gifts available online to support the museum during these difficult times, many of them inspired by our collections and made at the museum – such as sweets, gingerbread and Christmas cakes! Beamish Monopoly continues to be popular, do explore the online shop https://beamish.digitickets.co.uk/category/27688?navItem=173817 but here are a few of the new transport products:

Above: Top Trumps. Discover new and exciting facts about the impressive Beamish transport collection as you try to trump and win your opponent’s cards with Beamish Top Trumps. Did you know that Gateshead tram 10 was the first tram to arrive and operate at Beamish? Or that the Barford & Perkins D4-type motor roller was originally supplied to the Royal Air Force in 1925 as part of a fleet of rollers used to maintain grass airfields for the service?
Expand your knowledge of Beamish’s transport collection and find out about rarely seen Beamish vehicles such as the Austin 20 Hearse, which has been in the museum’s collection since the 1970s.
The Beamish Top Trump cards cover all of the museum’s transport including trams, locomotives, buses, cars, tractors and more. This game allows you to travel through Beamish’s transport history and is a must for transport enthusiasts!
Above; Northern Pen and pencil. Inspired by our Northern General Transport Bus Depot exhibit and the stunning buses it houses, this exclusive pen and pencil combination features the iconic Northern logo and is exclusive to Beamish.
With many thanks to our friends at Go North East for their assistance in creating these exciting products.
Above: Smelling clean and fresh, rather than of petrol and oil, our garage air freshener is produced in the UK exclusively for Beamish. The design is based on the beautiful sign written advert on our garage exhibit, which we have also used to design mugs and enamel signs. The perfect way to bring Beamish to your own car, and is a much-sought after product for classic car owners.
Above: Christmas at Beamish jigsaw. This features our horseman Chris driving a hermaphrodite sleigh, which can be used as a carriage in the summer months and converted to a sleigh for the winter, pulled by our gorgeous gelderlander horse Pico – in front of the Sun Inn exhibit in the 1900s Town.
One of our iconic trams, 196 South Shields, in the 1900s Town with our famous sweet shop exhibit in the background. Did you know each tram at Beamish does around 25 miles per day? Meaning our trams have already been 12 times round the earth since the tramway opened in 1973.
Our Replica London General Omnibus Company B Type bus in the 1900s Town, with Ravensworth Terrace in the background. 
Our 1933 Morris Commercial parked in the snow outside the Co-op Store in the 1900s Town.
Above: Our Transport in the 1900s Town jigsaw
Above: Book of Samson (signed!) as well as other publications including the new guidebook (produced for the 50th anniversary).
Above: Bus Pin Badge. An exclusive pin badge of our London General B Type Replica bus which is an iconic part of Beamish – and now you can wear it!

Thank you Matthew! Obviously at this time it is important for us to generate as much revenue as we can via our non-operational avenues – retail being the biggest element of this during this second phase of lockdown. Matthew has worked hard to develop the range online as well as within the shops on site, and there are many other ideas brewing for further products. I am also mindful of having several books on the stocks that need developing further towards publication. These include a revision of the tramway book (which sold out very quickly) and which will include trolley and motorbuses as well as additional pages and images in the next edition.

We now have to earn the money to develop ideas like this so it may be a little while yet before this book appears, but it will be the next in the range I expect. I also have ideas about creating a more developed history of the transport collections at Beamish and the construction, operation, closure, reopening of the various railway exhibits over time. This is more of a medium to long term project though. Meanwhile I also intend to continue to write articles and solicit other material that we can have published or feature on the blog (the recent series by Ian Bean on the cycle collection being a good example of this). The aim always being to present accurate and comprehensive information relating to the collection at Beamish.