Time Travel

We went to Beamish the other day. The museum here is an open-air experience which brings the history of North East England from about the 1820s onwards to life. The shops, trades, homes from the different periods on show all open their doors to visitors. The longest queue was outside the sweet shop from the early days of the twentieth century … It seemed the perfect day out for the Spanish branch of the family. Life’s far too busy just now for an extensive post, but here are just a few modes of transport that we saw, and in some cases travelled on during the day. More in a later post, I’m sure.

Midweek Monochrome

More from Masham Steam Rally

Here are some more images taken in Masham as dozens of historic vehicles trundled slowly through town last Saturday in the early evening sun to take their place in the Market Square to be gazed at by the curious – or closely inspected by fellow enthusiasts.

And some children, schooled by the parents – or grandparents more likely – rushed out into the road before each vehicle passed to place pennies in the path of oncoming vehicles. Malcolm remembers the excitement, as a boy, of finding their now unspendable coins flattened into large discs by those trundling steam rollers and similar. My London childhood denied me such pleasures. Though I do remember fire engines like the one shown as the fourth image here, with one frantic fireman at the front constantly pulling at a rope to ring the tinny bell urging people out of the way.

And here are the children and their pennies …

And here are some of the characters we saw. Though what one little group was doing canvassing for Votes for Womem (sic) escaped me.

Midweek Monochrome