I

f you’ve ever wished you could step back in time, then the Beamish Museum will be right up your cobbled street.

This exciting open-air museum has recreated life as we didn’t know it, allowing you to experience what life was like in the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian periods. Spread across the 300 acres you’ll find a railway station, a pit village and even a farm – all buzzing away with life as if the clocks suddenly stopped all those years ago.

There’s a town, too – or at least a couple of streets – complete with a dentist’s surgery, local pub, sweetshop, stationers and a branch of the Co-op. What makes it even more realistic are the costumed workers walking the streets and trams and old motorbikes puttering along the cobbles.

Children and big kids alike will love the Victorian fairground, with its magical steam-powered carousel adorned with handsome horses. Meanwhile, at the pit village you’ll see miners’ cottages, a board school, Methodist chapel and more – and if you’re keen you could take a trip underground to experience what life in the mines was really like.

After all that tiresome time travelling, you’ll need to replenish, and nothing hits the spot like a fish and chip supper. And as you’d expect, these are no ordinary fish and chips, they are Edwardian-style fish and chips cooked using a coal fire in beef dripping and then wrapped in newspaper. Spiffing!