A new electrical and repair shop has been announced as the latest new attraction at Beamish Museum's 1950s Town.
The shop plans are the result of a £100,000 grant from the Reece Foundation, a long-term supporter of the County Durham museum, and will add another layer of life to the period town which already has a fish and chip shop, hairdressers, cafe and a recreation of Norman Cornish's house on its main terrace street.
The new addition, which will be due to open next year, will feature a showroom at the front of the shop to tell the story of the increase of domestic appliances during the 1950s and the rapid changes in technology at the time.
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Electrical items such as radios, hairdryers, fridges and lighting will be on display and, given that the decade also saw a huge rise in television ownership, a second showroom upstairs will feature period TVs, as well as 1950s records which also were then a common sight in electrical shops.
The idea of the shop, which is set to fascinate visitors with its recreation of where people in the fifties would take their goods for repair, is to help inspire engineers of the future and the financial support for it is part of a total £1m donation Reece Foundation has made over the past 12 years to support the museum’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) projects.
The shop is to be named A Reece Ltd, Radio and Electrical Services, after North East engineer Dr Alan Reece who set up Reece Foundation in 2017. Once built in the 1950s Town, it will mean thousands of children, families, schools and groups can take part in hands-on STEM activities.
A downstairs space will host activities involving electronics, circuitry and basic fault-finding and repair while a workshop above will be set up like a 1950s electrical repair space for use by the likes of school groups and youth clubs and for teacher training.
Beamish Museum said it is "incredibly grateful" for the award from the foundation, a charity which is all about promoting engineering and manufacturing. Sally Dixon, assistant director of partnerships and communications, said: “We’re extremely proud of our long-standing relationship with Reece Group."
She said the partnership, established in 2009, has evolved and matured over time and that the museum is perfectly placed to support the foundation's key message - 'engineers solve problems'. "We very much look forward to working with the team there for years to come, inspiring the engineers of the future."
Anne Reece, chair of Reece Foundation, said they are delighted to help Beamish bring the past alive and to use it to inspire the generations of the future. “Right now we are realising the value of sustainability and the necessity to reduce waste – to repair and to reuse," she said. "We couldn’t have a more relevant place than the electrical repair workshop for today’s society
"We must relearn and value those skills and our workshop will make a significant contribution to this aim.” Its previous awards have supported the likes of engineering workshops in Beamish’s bus depot as well as restoration projects, engineering apprenticeships and a young engineers’ club.
The 1950s Town is part of the £20million Remaking Beamish project, which also includes a 1950s Farm and expansion of The 1820s Landscape. This project was awarded a £10.9m grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2016 and Beamish, itself a charity, is still in the process of fund-raising for the remaining match-funding for the work. For more information see here.
