Beamish Museum - Great Research Tool And New Writing Projects

Now that Lycan Lamia - Book Four in the Beyond Series is almost edited and ready for publication and can happily turn my attention to two new writing projects I've been itching to start. The feeling of releif when a writing itch is finally scratched is AMAZING!!!

Mink Coats is an History true life novel based on my both my grandmothers lives whom I promised to write about and they both lived astonishing lives. I also have a huge interest in all kinds of history, especially early twentieth century history so when I had the opportunity to visit an open air working museum set in Tyneside close to Durham I jumped at the chance. Not only was this an enjoyable day out, but for me it was an opportunity to experience what it was like to live in a northern town from 1900 right through to the Second World War.

So here is my tour of the Beamish Open Air Museum, and boy was it brilliant! I took a lot of photo’s, I loved it that much, but basically it is a working museum, where you catch a tram to a 1900’s coal mining Village of Beamish, which has mostly crumbled and collapsed into the mines, but what’s left has been beautifully preserved.

A typical looking early twentieth century Northern town.

The traditional bakery smelt AM-AZ-ING! They’d just finished baking hot cross buns and the scent of cinnamon and bread baking made my tummy rumble… so I bought a warm loaf…. Mmmm!

 Every building had been dismantled brick by brick and moved to Beamish. I caught the tram to 1900’s town, which according to Barclays Bank Manager all of it has been built from original buildings that were to be demolished from elsewhere, taken down brick by brick and rebuilt at the museum.

Barclays Bank just like one I worked in during the 80's

 Dentist Surgery

I had a nosy in the Dentist Surgery and he told us some gruesome stories about pulling teeth, so I went to the Music teacher’s house and she’d just baked some cherry cake in her wood burning range…. Mmmm! All that food we needed to wash it down in the local pub and warmed up by a roaring fire then headed to the sweet shop where they’d just made some lime and sherbet boiled sweets…. Mmmm!

 Clothes shop.

 Parlour

 Grocers just like the one my mum began her working life in.

 Kitchen and Hearth

 War time Britain and the Land girls cottage -A working farm preserved in 1940’s Britain, with your very own Home Guard and Land Girl to answer any questions and bake some very lovely cheese scones in an old wood burning range. Mmmm.

Nursery - So Cute!!

 Parlour- with a lot of stuffed animals!

Early Century Public House

 1900 School

 School Classroom

 Solicitors Office

Sweets!

By this point I was getting some serious cases of Déjà vu and it was bugging me so much I asked the tram conductor if they had ever allowed filming of period drama’s there and it turns out they have. Catherine Cookson? I enquired and I was right. The Sweet shop was the giveaway for me and as I love the Catherine Cookson films that are made for TV I was really chuffed to say, I’ve been on a film set of The Wingless Bird! Which made me even more excited, I've been on a film set!!

To Buy Alison's Beyond Books

Edinburgh and East Coast Scotland

Holyrood House – To me most stately homes are pretty much the same these days. As a child I loved to go to Chatsworth, Tatton Park and other lovely country houses and imagine that I lived there in Victorian times. These days I look at such places and think 'oh that’s pretty, but worn' and move on. Holyrood was pretty much put in that category for me I’m afraid. What few rooms you did see were grand, but as a working palace I guess they don’t have to show all the house off. At least I can say I've seen it.

Mother Earth Museum – This has to be the best Museum ever!. First you go in a lift that takes you back through time. Then you walk through different ages of planet Earths life. So there was the dinosaur age, Ice age, various stages of human evolution then an actual rain forest that produced a rain storm every 30 minutes or so. Then you were whisked off to the future to decide the future of the environment. I guess the interactive stuff is great for children and I wish there had been museums like that when I was a child.

Edinburgh Castle – This reminded me of Tower of London. That’s as much as I remember. I don’t go wild for the massive castles, like Caernarfon, Windsor and Edinburgh… They’re full of tourists! No I love looking on an ordnance survey map, find a key for castles and Abbeys then drive to some random farmers field and wander around the ruins imagining what it must have been like as a busy working fortification. R=This is how I wrote about Criccieth Castle in Didikai Witch, the actual castle today is virtually in ruins, but my love for the landscape and the town meant it was a perfect location for the Romanov Coven.

 Christmas markets always make me feel warm and excited inside. Takes me to fond memories of my past.

 The Witchery just made me think of all things occult, dark and gothic - I've decided to decipher the signs and discover the history of this strange pub. One other thing I didn't do is the underground catacombs, which are very haunted. Next Time!

Seton Sands Holiday Village – A pretty little campsite spoilt slightly by a power station. Also have to cross the road to get to a muddy beach.

Hogmanay – Edinburgh was incredibly busy, but the Christmas markets were still on and I love that whole chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Mulled wine stalls, Ferris wheels and sparkly lights. It's all so cosy and lovely. It was nuts with far too many people for my liking. Glad I did, doubt I will go again.

I've always wanted to do Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer time, but I need to sort out my claustrophobia amongst crowds first I think. I definitely want to return to this side of Scotland as there is still so much to do and see. Watch this space.

Paranormal Research at Kingfisher Mill

I have done quite a lot of research for my Beyond Series of books and so whilst I was writing a section that featured ghosts and paranormal investigations, I decided I really wanted to have a go myself.

I worked in an old mill converted into offices and I was hearing stories from some of the tenants who claimed they had heard noises such as factory machinery, people shouting when no-one else was in the building and two people told me they had seen a man in a brown foreman’s uniform on the stairs and in the corridor of the fourth floor then just disappeared in front of them. Both descriptions were almost identical and neither had told anyone else of the sightings.

Another claim was hearing voices of ladies chattering and laughing on the second floor. When I researched it I discovered that the foreman had died there and the loudest lady was known as Kathy who was the supervisor in the sewing room on the second floor. (This was all when the mill was a shoe factory that closed in the early eighties.)

I had a night vision camera so I decided to stay late one night when I knew a psychic was having a meeting with my boss.

I went wandering around the building in the dark armed only with my camera and began calling out for any spirits to make themselves known. I wasn’t in the least bit frightened of the dark, until I stood in the corridor on the second floor and began goading Kathy the loud and larger than life seamstress to show herself to me, saying things like “Come on I know you like playing jokes on people, show yourself unless your chicken.” Just then she appeared right at the side of my face, just for a brief second, but long enough to spook me so much I ran back up to the room where my boss was having the meeting. It was a real Most Haunted moment.

I told them what had happened and the psychic just smiled and said, “Yes the foreman’s been keeping an eye on you, just in case Kathy went too far, although he is curious why you would want to frighten yourself like that.” Argghh!! I was freakin' out!

My boss nor I had told the psychic anything about what I was doing there so late at night and she knew nothing of the history or the spirits in the building as she was visiting from another part of the country. It was so cool I would love to do a professional ghost hunt one day.

My website www.alisonkershaw.com

Details of My Supernatural Books

Back to the Future II and 2015

So we are in 2015 already. Yikes!! This is frightening and poignant for me because when I was a teenager I loved all thing Michael J Fox - Family Ties I watched every night at 5.30pm on Channel 4 and even managed to tape several episodes which I still have on VHS today. I was so obsessed with Teen Wolf, before I was able to save up and buy my own copy I rented the video over a weekend for the longest period I could and would get up super early so I watch the film before my family got up and disturbed my euphoria at watching such delights as Michael turning into a werewolf for the first time. I watched it so much and so many posters on my bedroom wall my dad started calling the actor Michael J Wolfy!

And then there were Michael's other great films Back to The Future, II and III. Oh how I loved watching the vulnerable young man finding himself in the past and running to his mum and dads defence against the town bully - Biff Tannan. I waited an absolute (or what seemed like) an absolute age for Back to The Future II to be released in 1989 and naturally I went to the cinema (alone cos I'm nerdy like that) to indulge in my guilty pleasure of watching what Robert Zemeckis' vision of the future would be in October 21st 2015!

I was actually really impressed and I do remember thing to myself then, "God I'll be 42!" But I think I've aged a lot better than the make up used for the characters 35 years into the future. Haha!!
So as a homage to the wonderful Michael J Wolfy and to the Back to the Future Franchise that has given me some AMAZING cherished memories of my misspent youth, I have decided to make comparisons to Marty McFly's 2015 and my own.

Similarities:

1. We are obsessed with cosmetic surgery and making ourselves look young. (Doc Brown's Rejuvenation clinic)
2. 3D and 4D films are all the rage. (The 3D Jaws 19 film advertised when Marty first arrives in the future)

3. TV screens to advertise things in city and town centres.
4. Multiple TV stations. (Marty Jnr watching television at home).
5. Voice activated technology. (When Jennifer is taken back to their future home).
6. Video phones. (Old Marty's conversation with Needles and his boss).

7. Griff has bionic implants and although we don't have things fitted to make us better or stronger, implants are used for people with disabilities, (Hearing, pacemakers, prosthetic limbs. etc...).

8. We are slow on the uptake but we do recycle a lot of our rubbish these days. (Mr Fusion recycle).
9. The weather service... Attempting to forecast the weather and still get it wrong!
10. Nostalgia for 80's retro. (Cafe 80's)

Differences:

1. We don't yet use our thumb prints to pay for things.
2. Pepsi Cola doesn't cost fifty dollars just yet.

3. We don't have hover boards or flying cars or skyways.

4. We don't have hydrate cooking machines that cook food in a seconds. (Grandma Lorraine bringing a tiny dried up pizza for tea).

5. Although they have video phones in their sun glasses there wasn't any reference to touch screen phones that we carry around.

6. Home computers/Tablets etc. wasn't mentioned, but the house had an auto fax machine in every room.
7. Self walking dog devices.

8. Self tying shoe laces and self adjusting and drying clothes.

9. Petrol Station Robots.
10. We don't have fingerprint recognition door locks or indoor garden centres that drop from the ceiling.

This is actually just a few of the ideas Zemeckis came up with, but if Doc Brown had had a Sat Nav he wouldn't have flown into oncoming traffic on a skyway (Motorway for flying cars!) and who would've thought that in the 1980's we'd have gone nuts for the internet...  I wonder if some of these film inventions will one day become the norm for us. Well we've got until October 21st at 7.28am to find out. Think I'll have another look on New Years 2030!!!

I think Michael looks far better now than what the make department predicted he'd look like in 1989.