The second installment of Beamish Museum’s annual transport spectacular, this year with a First World War theme, was ‘Horses at War’ which was held over two days, Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th April. As the name suggests the main attraction (or should that be ‘mane attraction’!?) was an impressive number of horses at work around the whole site, showing how these magnificent creatures helped the war effort both at home and on the battlefields.
Naturally the trams also played an important role as always, transporting the large number of visitors around the site. Unfortunately, despite entering service on the previous weekend following its major overhaul, Sheffield 264 was confined to the depot for the whole weekend. Operation of the tram in passenger service had highlighted the need for a few tweaks to be made and therefore 264 has returned to the works for some further attention, although it is hoped that it will be back in service again in May. This once again highlighted the small pool of operational trams at the museum, with all four serviceable cars in use for the event – these being Sunderland 16, Newcastle 114, Blackpool 147 and Oporto 196. The weather on Saturday was mixed to say the least, as seems to be all too common for events at Beamish so far this year, with a mix of rain, sun and hail! Fortunately the weather improved significantly for the second day of the horse event which although very cold at times, was a beautiful sunny day without a spot of rain.
The many horses in attendance, believed to have numbered around eighty, performed a wide variety of roles. Soldiers on horseback paraded around the museum site, horses ploughed the fields and even pulled some wagons in the pit village. Perhaps most popular of all were the numerous horse-drawn vehicles being demonstrated, some of which offered rides to visitors and dare it be said, rather upstaged the trams. Star of the show was probably a beautiful London horse-drawn omnibus borrowed from the London Bus Museum and hauled by two delightful little horses. So, in spite of Sheffield 264‘s absence from the main line, a superb event all round and one with seemingly endless action with horses and vehicles never far away and no shortage of impressive sights making for many unique photographic opportunities to delight the hoards of visitors to came to enjoy this fantastic occasion.
One of the highlights of the big events at Beamish is always the chance to see trams mingling with other period road traffic. Here, Blackpool Standard 147 encounters a horse-drawn omnibus at the main entrance. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)