Trot along to Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, for their Horses at Work event this weekend.
There will be 50 horses in action around the museum, including pit ponies, elegant carriage horses and heavy horses, ranging from Irish Draughts and Friesians to Shires and Clydesdales. There will be a parade each day, as well as opportunities to take a trip on a variety of horse-drawn vehicles, including two late 1800s London omnibuses.
This year, Horses at Work takes on a homecoming theme, showing the country returning to peacetime after the end of the First World War. During the event, there’ll be the chance to see the Durham Pals returning home at Rowley Station with a celebratory homecoming parade. Led by the Borneo Band, and including an Armstrong Whitworth replica car, soldiers and several horse-drawn vehicles, the parade will travel from Rowley Station to The 1900s Town at 1pm each day. A speech will be given outside the Masonic Hall to welcome the troops home.
Visitors will also be able to find out about the North East War Memorials project in The 1900s Town’s Bank Board Room on the Sunday. In The 1900s Pit Village, visitors will be able to see the 16th Lancers Cavalry Unit, and a pit pony demonstrating how tubs of coal were hauled.
In the Hetton Silver Band Hall, find out about the work of the Brooke charity, set up in 1930 by Dorothy Brooke to help ex-war horses. The Brooke charity is still dedicated to the welfare of working horses and donkeys today.
Finally, meet the pack horse at the 1820s Pockerley Old Hall, and watch teams of horses carrying out field work and cultivation in the fields beneath Pockerley.
Horses at Work is part of the Great North Festival of Transport.
When: 27th & 28th April 2019, 10am – 5pm
Where: Beamish Museum, Beamish, County Durham DH9 0RG
£: Admission costs £19.50 for adults, £14.50 for seniors and students, and £11.50 for children. Family tickets are also available. Tickets are valid for 12 months
More info: www.beamish.org.uk
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