Cold chill down my spine

We went to Beamish today seeing as I'm on my hols.

http://www.beamish.org.uk/

Basically, Beamish is a massive open air 'living museum'. They've built an old pit village, restored a colliery, got working Victorian and Edwardian farms, a transport network using ancient trams and busses, a vintage train station and a 'wagon works' among other vintage things.

Towards the end of the day, we had made it as far as the engine sheds and wagon works.

Our son, 3 year old, then started on with a tale that just got more and more creepy the more he said. It goes like this:

The lad, suddenly excited: Oh! Daddy, me been here before.
Me: No, you haven't have you.
The lad: Yes, a long long time ago.
Me (laughing): For you, there is no such thing as a long long time ago.
The lad (seeming frustrated or offended): No daddy! A long long time ago! Before daddy. When I was big.
Me (taken aback): Oh, when was that?
The lad (a bit calmer now): A long time ago, before, when I was big. What happened, horse in field (he pointed to an empty field). What happened, me fall.

 

You need to research that tale clueless. These situations have been known to happen before.

 

Facinating stuff Clueless

 

Really weird... my son did the same thing at about that age; when out on a drive he pointed to an old house and said he built it. I told him not to tell fibs and he said ' I really did mum, with an Irish man'. Then on Mother's Day I got a card saying 'To the best Mum in the world'... after gushing him with kisses, hugs and thank yous he said 'but you are not as good as my last Mum'

 

I love stories like these, so very very fascinating!!!!!

Val

 

Wouldn't like to say what the memories were that I had when I was 2 ish, but they certainly weren't from the life i'm in now

 

I do actually believe in reincarnation, and I also believe that young kids can have not exactly memories, but shadows of memories of a previous life, like vague memories of a dream.

The trouble with this case though, is that although some of the exhibits at Beamish were always at the site (because there was a coal mine there way before it became Beamish museum), much of it is actually a purpose built re-creation, built up over the past 40 years.

I think the wagon works and engine shed that the lad thought he recognised was genuinely old, but was moved there from elsewhere. If I remember right, it said said 'Consett' on it, which is a town just a few miles from Beamish. I know several of their buildings were dismantled, moved to Beamish from their original location, rebuilt and restored at the museum. I think the engine shed is an example of that.

 

I don't believe in reincarnation, but would never knock what someone else believes, and respect your belief clueless. If I'm wrong and you are right, I just hope that I don't come back for another round. I really don't want that.
I've had too many weird things happen to me not to believe that there is more, and my belief is that we die and then change/move on and evolve. I have also had some pretty nasty visions/experiences, and then seen those experiences unfold days later.

But along the theme of your post. I have a dream quite frequently which has grown and grown, and developed to be very real. In that dream, I am a teenage lad and end up cycling over the edge of a quarry and die. I can't explain it, but I know exactly where the location is, the whole of the quarry, the tracks and lanes around it, the houses and the people. None of it is there now, and perhaps never existed, but it still feels real enough to me when I drive through the area.
For all I know, that parallel universe that people talk about could exist and maybe some times the two mix.

If nothing else, it all makes for interesting thinking.

 

The only thing original at Beamish is the Farm house and its outbuildings
The drift mine was created and the miners row houses were brought in brick by brick
at the beginning

When the guy started it One of my fathers aquaitances at the time
He leafleted the whole area asking for old bits and pieces
Our old kitchen mangle was taken as one of the exhibits along with some Enamel
product signs from the garage wall
We got nothing but a thank you for them and Dad had to buy Mum one of the new
Elecrickery mangles no twin tub, had to stick with the poss tub and stick (we were poor)
We did get free entrance for the first six weeks though Only we could not afford the bus fare to Chester le Street :-)

What I do not understand is the pricing
Once you have bought your ticket, it states valid for a whole year
So we just leave ours with my brother in Chester le Street and anyone who visits can take a free day in Beamish

Clueless your child stated he had been there before and fell of a horse in a field
That would be correct he was refering to the area and the fields, Not what was now built upon the rest of it

do de do dl do de do dl

Jack McH

 

Good point Jack.

I did say the flaw in the story was that the works were not originally there, but as you say, most of it was brought in from the surrounding area.

The field he pointed at was a field like any other.

Although I do believe in reincarnation, I don't automatically believe every spooky tale is proof of it. It could simply be that the lad has a good imagination. It was just spooky the way he got annoyed and said things like 'before daddy' and 'when I was big'.

 

The plot thickens.

We went back to Beamish on sunday. We took my mam along this time too. We went back because the place is now too big to get round in one visit, unless you want to race round without paying much attention to anything.

This time we went up into a fake colliery top (not sure what the proper name is). As we got to near the top of the stairs, my son started to explain how it worked, all about where the coal goes, and how the lifts go under ground and various other bits and pieces that seemed a bit technical for a 3 year old. I didn't pay that much attention to be honest because I thought he was just imagining stuff, but when we got properly into the place, a guide who was in period costume ready to explain to visitors how it all worked, laughed nervously and said "this lad's going to do me out of a job, explaining how it all works and all".

 

Very interesting Dave , are you going to take him back in a few months to see if anything else develops?
A colliery top is a Pit Head by the way.

 

We've got passes that will last til nearly a year from now, so plenty more visits to come I reckon.

 

Clueless, you shouldn't really be surprised that he knows so much about how a colliery works.
After all, at 3 years old he's just a minor.



Silly jokes aside, this is intriguing stuff. I always like to think there's a rational explanation for such events, but so far this one has me baffled.