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Beamish

The award-winning Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is situated in 300 acres of beautiful County Durham countryside and vividly illustrates life in the North of England from the early 1800s to 1913.. This is one of the North East’s leading tourist attractions. Buildings from throughout the region have been brought to Beamish, rebuilt and furnished as they once were. Costumed staff welcome visitors and demonstrate the past way of life. The museum has acquired the Victorian steam locomotive Dunrobin, built in 1895 for the duke of Sutherland to pull his private train at Dunrobin Castle. Tel: 0191 370 4000.

Two miles to the northwest is Causey Arch, reputed to be the world’s first single-arch railway bridge and in its day the longest single span bridge in England. It was designed by Ralph Wood, a local stonemason, and financed by a group of local coal owners to carry the Tanfield Railway - opened in 1725 - between Sunniside and Causey. In those days the wagons were pulled by horses, though steam power eventually took over. The first bridge fell down and the unfortunate designer Wood was so frightened that the second attempt would also fail that he threw himself off the bridge to his death. Steam-hauled trains now run along three miles of line between Sunniside and East Tanfield, and at Old Marley Hill are collections of locomotives and carriages and a steam-driven vintage workshop. Tel: 0191 388 7545. There’s a car park and picnic area close by, and rights of way link them to Beamish. The restored railway started its 40th anniversary celebrations with a weekend-long freight festival in February 2010.