by Emma Smith
The children at Woodham Burn Out of School Club visited Beamish Museum for the first time. Emma Smith, age 10 wrote this article on behalf of all of the children.
When we arrived at Beamish we went to the pit village first and walked through the houses. In one of the houses we saw a man who was making a ‘clippy’ mat and were told that the material he was using was old clothes. He also told us about the different tools that were used in the kitchen and showed us the tool used to clean the clippy mat.
Next we went to the school, with a girls’ and boys’ entrance, also a girls playground and a boys playground. The teacher told us about different punishments the spot of shame and dunce’s hat which we acted out, we also looked at the cane. We were allowed to play with the toys in the playground called boolers.
Next we went to the farm and saw pigs, chickens, cows and horses followed by lunch in front of the fairground. After lunch we went to the dentist and we were told that 3 in every 100 patients died in the Victorian times when visiting the dentist. Afterwards we went to the sweet shop, clothes shop, local food shop, the bank, and the print shop. In the print shop they were demonstrating how posters were made in 1825 – 1913.
We were given a poster that said “We have been to Beamish” to take back to the club. In the local food shop we were told that the money was put in a ball and sent into a little room, where a man checked customers had paid the right amount.
We met Suffragettes, who were wanting Votes for Women, and then met some people saying No Votes for Women. After that we all got an ice lollie and went on the top of the tram back to the bus to go home.
