Ouston & Beamish

Ouston and Beamish sit close together in County Durham on the southern edge of the old Durham Coalfield. Ouston is a residential village made up largely of post‑war housing and estates built for local workers, with a primary school, community centre and a scattering of shops at its core. Surrounding both settlements are fields, hedgerows and tributaries that feed into the small burns running through the district, creating a patchwork of farmland and former industrial sites that still shape road patterns and property boundaries.

Beamish is best known for the open‑air museum that occupies part of the parish and preserves complete streets, a 1940s town, and rural buildings. The museum operates a working tramway and a narrow‑gauge railway that link recreated mine workshops, a colliery winding engine and period shops, offering a practical view of local industrial and social history. Local life still centres on village halls, small businesses and occasional community events that reflect the area’s mining and agricultural roots.