Helen Stephenson's North East England Holiday Pictures - October, 2007 - Beamish Home Farm

A row of cottages at the roadside forms the frontage of the Home Farm. Beyond is a farmyard, stabling, implement sheds and a pond. We didn't go inside the cottages. I'm not sure whether they were open. If they are, I must add stepping inside them to my list of things to do next time I'm in the North East and get the opportunity to visit Beamish.

We passed through the stabling, where there were some horses which we didn't photograph, and came out in the farmyard with its implement sheds, which were open onto the farmyard. From left to right: a steam engine with its chimney laid down and with a seed drill in the foreground; what looks to me like a binder, which will make sheaves of hay rather that bales; and a mower with its knife section removed, which is undoubtedly a good idea as the knife section in a mower is a dangerous piece of equipment, as my Father could have testified, having been cut by one and having no feeling in the tip of his right index finger ever again.

I had several attempts at photographing the hay wagon, which was loaded with sheaves.

Other items which caught my eye included a piece of machinery upstairs with revolving parts. I probably knew what it did at the time, but can't recall now. Downstairs in the implement shed I saw a giant bellows, which I expect was used in the forge; and a horse float.

On the pond there were Aylesbury ducks. I think the ones I've shown here are all hens, as the drakes have a curly feather at the tip of their tail.

Sharing the pond with the Aylesbury Ducks were some rare breeds of geese, including this one with the hefty underhang and the loose neck skin. I'm not sure whether the portrait of this goose reminds me more of what Fred Bassett would look like if a wizard turned him into a goose; or whether the wizard would get these results if he worked on the Conservative politician and one-time London Mayoral candidate, Steve Norris!