Beamish appoints new boss

Apr 29 2008 by David Whetstone, The Journal

BEAMISH Museum has appointed a new boss – eight months after the last one resigned suddenly.

Richard Evans, aged 35, will take up the post of director of the North of England Open Air Museum at the beginning of July.

He is currently director of Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park Heritage Trust, a 600-acre estate near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

The attraction shot to national prominence when it featured on the BBC’s Restoration programme and has secured millions of pounds of lottery funding.

Mr Evans’s new role will involve overseeing a £3m budget, 300 acres of grounds, 90 full-time staff and up to 200 employees during the summer.

The role became vacant last August when Miriam Harte, who had run Beamish for six years, resigned suddenly. She explained that she had felt “obliged” to go because of “current structures and management arrangements” at the museum.

Under her directorship, Beamish had won awards including the prestigious Visitor Attraction of the Year from tourism organisation VisitBritain.

Mr Evans said: “Beamish is a fantastic place that people love to visit. I will be absolutely dedicated to make sure that this remains the case and that the museum has a secure and successful future.

“I absolutely share in Beamish’s passion for the social, industrial and agricultural past of the North, the heritage that has shaped our places, culture and identity – the heritage most relevant to the British people themselves.”

He added: “Plans are always going to be based on a thorough understanding of our customers and what their needs are.”

Mr Evans was born in Kent and is married with two young children. He said that following a visit to Beamish at Easter, his three-year-old couldn’t stop talking about the trams and the old fashioned sweet shop.

Mr Evans studied at Glasgow and Bradford universities and before joining Wentworth worked on the New Lanark Unesco World Heritage Site.

Work at Beamish is overseen by a committee representing North East local authorities.

Chairman Mel Speding, of Sunderland City Council, said: “Richard has a strong record of delivery with the work that he’s done in South Yorkshire and he brings with him a wealth of expertise and knowledge that can only add to the award-winning Beamish experience.”