Beamish, The Living Museum of the North

Beamish Museum is a amazing open air museum and has trams and buses to get you around. They operate a Wheelchair accessible bus every day the museum is open. Dogs are welcome in the open air museum grounds and are only allowed in the following indoor areas, Entrance Building (including Entrance Gift shop), Rowley Station, 1820s Waggonway and Great Shed, 1900s Colliery Yard, including Engine Shed and Lamp Cabin (excluding drift mine), Sun Inn Pub. Dogs are allowed in the Entrance Coffee Shop, Sun Inn Pub, 1950s Bowling Pavilion (grab and go only), Sinkers Bait Carven (grab and go only), Drovers Traven. Dogs are only allowed on the lower deck of transport, no seats, and with the conductor's discretion. Water bowls are prodived, keep dogs on a lead, do not leave them unattended, pick up after your dog. Dog waste bags are available at the Entrance Building if you forgot yours. Only Assistance Dogs are allowed into all indoor areas. Accessible toilets are available in the Entrance Building, Hetton Sliver Band Hall, Tea Rooms, Lamp Cabin, Masonic Hall, the 1820s Waggonway, Pockerley Old Hall, Regional Resources Centre, Tram Shelter, 1940s Farm, Spain Fields Farm, John's Cafe, Welfare Hall, the Fairground. Changing Places Facilities are available in the Welfare Hall. Slings are not provided for Health and Safety reasons, vistors must bring their own which works with the hoist and is their size. Baby change facilities are available in the Entrance Building, Lamp Cabin, Pockerley Old Hall, Tram Shelter, Tea Rooms, the Fairground, John's Cafe, the Welfare Hall.

I have reduced mobility and I expected this to be hard work for me but wanted to go and we came up from Suffolk for 2 full days. Staff are all very good. We was offered a carer ticket but I refused as it's a charity. I did email them before and was assured about the mobility bus and made well aware of restrictions. Obviously it's effectively designed to be as inaccessible as possible due to the nature but I think they have done really well to still make it available to most in some way or other. The 50's town does have lifts available and I felt I was only struggling with the landscape and bits like the cobble stones. Only negatives I'd say in terms of accessibility: - Parking is good but poorly signposted and the ground is uneven. - There maybe a queue and no thought is given on those struggling to stand. - The transport I feel is a bit too regimented, it's very much run to a timetable, The buses do do that annoying thing where they move off even if not everyone is seated and they did happen to me. Also one of the buses did kick us off in the pit village as so we had to walk and join the back of a queue. It does seem they have set rules and they won't deter from that even if it makes it harder for people with walking issues. Also they really don't wait even if you are near. - The transport doesn't cover every corner and there walks involved on uneven ground. I feel it would be better if smaller transport was available to cover things like the railway station and 1950's farm. - We didn't use the accessibility bus as there was lots of wheelchair users and it seemed to be always be in use (which is good) although with waits for the normal transport (which you have to use) it can make getting around quite lengthy. I can't help to think that it would be good if there was a frequent accessible bus or perhaps taxi's other transport, it would be good if the trains ran too. It is well worth the struggles though it's a lovely and interesting place. We will be back within the year!

We visited when the steam rally was on. It is a really good place to take kids and grandchildren. It was very busy the day we went and after queuing up for the bakery we got in and we were that they were waiting on goods being baked and if we wanted any we would have to go to the back of the queue and start again which we didn't bother to otherwise being in a wheelchair we used the specialist bus for getting around which was really easy and the staff were all very helpful and polite.