It's been a while hasn't it? Since April I've been stowed under with uni work - between essays, revision and placement work I've barely had time to turn around!
Like I said, for one of my modules this term I had to complete a 10 day placement - ideally in an area I'd be interested in going into once I leave uni. It might sound like a bit of a cliche for a History student, but I've been thinking about what it'd be like to work in a museum in the future. So, for my placement I applied to some of the museums in the North East - including my favourite museum: Beamish. As the placement deadline grew closer, I started to think that I wouldn't be able to get a place at any of the museums I'd applied to. That was until I got a reply from Beamish saying that the Curatorial team would be happy to have me! I was so excited I actually jumped around our kitchen (I was making soup at the time, and managed to delete the email in the process - oops!)
I absolutely loved doing my placement at Beamish, it was actually the best two weeks ever. I even became quite fond of the 6am starts and hour long bus ride to get there - maybe because I managed to get through 5 of the books on my to-read list! I got to see the kind of things that the Curatorial team do on a day to day basis. I got to work with postcards, greetings cards and ephemera from WWI, process some of the donations made to the museum and go on a collection of a donation - among other things. At the end of the two weeks I made cakes to say thank you to the team for having me, and they bought Krispy Kreme donuts and a card to say thank you to me - so it was goodies all round!
I couldn't spend two weeks at Beamish without having a quick look round the museum itself - as well as buying a few treats. (I got some toffee bonbons and some Victorian lemonade for myself, strawberry bonbons for my boyfriend, a bar of chocolate for my Sister and a bag of cinder toffee for my Mam and Dad to share.) I think it's probably my favourite museum, and I always love going there for a day out. Over the summer I'm hoping to go back as a Curatorial Volunteer, but no doubt I'll be back as a visitor before September - when my year-long pass runs out...and I go back to uni.
The Pit Village at Beamish - Such a beautiful place!
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