
Site Maintenance Team News
In a change of author, while Paul takes a few days off, I though it was time for a general site maintenance update. It has been quite some time since I have reported on the work of the Building Maintenance Team, so there was a lot to choose from.
This post has turned into, somewhat, of a year (or maybe 18 months) in review. I have tried to cover as many jobs as I can, without making the post too long. Naturally, many of the ‘every day’ jobs are not included.
The Team, made up of 14 people, have a range of skills to enable us to carry much of our maintenance work in house. There is also a considerable amount of time spent supporting the Museum’s events program. As we are in the midst of packing away the Christmas decorations that seems a good place to start. We will then work our way back through some of the year’s bigger jobs.
Christmas is one of the Museum’s biggest events, and one of the longest running. Many of the preparations start long before autumn sets in. This year during August and September we began to prepare for the coming Christmas season.
The whole Christmas event is centred on Santa’s Grotto. This year the Grotto Team felt the main man needed a little upgrade to his accommodation. Danny and Ian then set to work on the structure of a new cosy setting. Working with the Grotto Team several improvements have been made, including some redecoration by our painters David and Paul.
The grotto is a great example of the Museum’s team work, from joinery to electrical and painting and decorating the whole construction has been in house. Then handed over to the Grotto Team to work their Christmas magic.

A grotto in the making
A small, but no the less important, element of Christmas in Elf Wood. Know the rest of the year as Birch Wood, the wood welcomes the elves and their houses for the Christmas season. Over the last few years we have built up a number of houses. Thanks to Peter and Matt in the RHEC, our Men’s Group Volunteers and David and Paul the number of buildings has again swelled. Planning is already underway for the 2025 additions.
In readiness for winter, many meters of festoon lighting are required. As we move forward with new developments we always try and incorporate permanent outside lighting. Our Electricians, Darren and Mike, spent time at the end of the summer installing street lighting through the 1950s Town.
Many of the more temporary lights, around the site, will be disappearing over the next 12 months. This will make way for new permanent lighting. This includes areas like the main car park, enabling us to rely less on hired in lighting rigs.
Our electricians also try and add little extras to site lighting, like the new Merry Christmas sign. Made on site and painted in the RHEC paint shop by Rebecca.

Darren putting the finishing touches to the new Marry Christmas sign
Away from event work the maintenance of the Museum’s site and buildings continues. Our joiners, Shaun and Dan have spent much of this year concentrating on window repairs and renewals. The majority of windows across the site are of wooden construction, making them vulnerable to the elements. Number 7 Ravensworth Terrace received new bay windows, upstairs and down, earlier in the year. Last month was Pockerley’s turn. The old windows had been in place since 1994, when the exhibit first opened to the public. Being such an exposed site it was decided to replace all of the windows in one go. On the run up to November’s installation there were several months of preparation work in the workshop to make each sash and box frame. An especially long task when you consider that every window opening is a different size.
After the joiners had completed the installation our stone masonry team, Paul, Peter and Dave followed along to point and make good the stonework.
In the new year much of the guttering and rainwater goods, at Pockerley, will be overhauled or renewed.
The stone masonry team have been kept very busy too. Home Farm has received some, much needed, attention. The buildings that housed the steam boiler, which originally powered a steam threshing engine, required considerable high-level maintenance.
During the late summer the boiler house and chimney were scaffolded, allowing the chimney to be pointed and the iron bands to be repaired. Home Farm is original to the site, making sections of the building over 150 years older than even the oldest reconstructed buildings.
The opportunity was also taken to replace much of the gutter work and carry out repairs to the pointing.
Some of the other jobs tackled over the last few months have included:
New town stalls have been constructed. These have been made to be a bit more robust, given the regular high winds, and give the staff a little more cover to work under.

Town Stalls
The many toilets around the site get very well used, by our 800k+ visitors. Earlier in the year Ian set about refitting the ladies’ toilets at the Waggonway. These have proven to be a vast improvement on the old ones. Later next year the gents will, hopefully, receive the same makeover.

Waggonway Toilets
There are also the many little jobs that make up the work of the team. Over the last 12 months over 800 job requests have been submitted, from across the Museum’s many areas and departments. Many of these being routine repairs, while some can be more complicated.
Some of these jobs result from mishaps. Davys Chip Shop light was one of these. However, the electricians had it repaired and reinstated within 48 hours.
Other jobs are to create new things, such as the welcome sign at the Entrance tram stop. Made in the museum’s joinery shop it was then sign written by local sign righter Eddie Roger.
Our Joiners, Shaun and Dan, also undertook a couple of restoration jobs. A relatively small job, but still time consuming, was the restoration of a K6 Telephone Box. The box is now in place outside the 1950s Cinema, complete with its full interior.
Another, larger job was the reconstruction of the Blue Garage. The building originally stood behind Redhill, the offices of the Durham Miners Association, in Durham. Due to redevelopment work, currently being carried out, the Garage had to be moved. Redhill offered the garage to the Museum and we jumped at the chance to dismantle it and bring it to the Museum. It has been placed next to the Aged Miners houses in the 1950s Town, and continues the long tradition of a strong bond between the Durham Miners Association and the Durham Aged Mineworkers Association. The Garage is now home to the many activities organised by the Museum’s Health and Wellbeing Team. Groups such as the weekly Men’s Group and clay and pottery groups are amongst the regular uses of the building.
As ever there will be a long list of jobs to attend to and never enough hours in the day to complete them all, as quickly as we would like. From footpath repairs, fencing and keeping the drains running free it is a full-time job to keep on top of it all. There will also be the unexpected, when things like the weather decides to throw us a curved ball.

Recent storm damage
This is only a small snapshot into the work of the Team, but hopefully highlights much of the unseen work that keeps the Museum going. Below are is a selection of a few of the other jobs that have taken place over the last few months.
Work continues across the Museum site, as we make the most of the closed days or January and February. The Team is currently busy across several jobs. The Main Entrance Coffee Shop is receiving an extensive overhaul, Home Farm footpaths are being relayed and repaired and a great deal of statutory inspections and testing is being carried out. More on all of this in my next post.
Dear Beamish,
Thank you so much for writing this great blog. Are there any currently any plans to extend any of the railway lines?
Hi Ben
No plans at present, though there are thoughts around remodelling some of the narrow gauge line, re-laying part of the Colliery sidings and continuing with other infrastructure renewal. There is a ‘one-day’ thought that we could extend the Rowley line, but this is highly unlikely to materialise anytime soon, if at all. The trouble with adding more, is that it is more to maintain – and that is increasingly time and money consuming!
Paul
dear beamish transport stocklist,
I am currently planning a model railway based on beamish colliery. and the early days of beamish. Is it possible to update the beamish in the 70s picture gallery as it currently doesn’t work. Also if it is possible could a later update focus on the narrow gauge railway and its future.
greatly appreciated.
Hi Bob. That gallery was an old plug-in so does seem to be dormant now. I’m not an IT person unfortunately so I’ll look at recreating that gallery another way – though this may be some time off completing. It might also be with new images from our archive, as and when I can get in to select them. With regards to the narrow gauge, the future of this is fairly static at the moment. I have some ideas that could see it replace the siding immediately behind the Francis Street cottages, so that it can gain access to the engine shed via an extension and new doorway, but this won’t happen soon (and entails a flat crossing over the standard gauge line). From 2027 the focus will be back on the standard gauge lines and the narrow gauge will not operate as frequently as it does now, as we cycle engines in and out of overhaul and also look at rolling stock life-expectency etc. It won’t close, but the main opreation will revert to No.18 and the chaldron waggons once again (which are much more visible within the Colliery setting).
Best wishes
Paul