Joe the Quilters Cottage – Repair the Heather Thatched Roof

Joseph Hedley’s cottage was painstakingly recreated by skilled museum staff within the Georgian time period area at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North. The exhibit which features stones from Joe’s original home, where he stood 200 years ago, tells the story of quilting and the growth of cottage industries in the early 1800s. Tragically Joe was murdered in 1826, an appalling crime that shocked the nation, with the culprits still unknown to this day.

Regrettably, due to the COVID pandemic, critical maintenance work on the roof couldn’t take place because lockdown meant the compulsory closure of the museum, during different times through 2020 and 2021.

The disruption to the maintenance plan meant that the roof became badly weather damaged and, following a full evaluation in 2022, the museum had to take the decision to close the exhibit to our visitors for health and safety reasons. In addition, due to financial vulnerability in the aftermath of the pandemic, the museum was forced to focus on other more immediate funding priorities.

We are now keenly seeking funds to make specialist repairs and instigate a regular maintenance programme to enable our visitors to access the cottage once again.

Our repair plans will include removing the existing roof covering and, once the timbers have dried and been checked, new turf and heather will need to be applied by a skilled experienced Master (heather) Thatcher. By protecting the fabric and longevity of the structure, we will remove the immediate risk to the building; a continued delay in replacing the roof covering may eventually lead to further deterioration of the cottage which we are obviously very keen to avoid.

Monies raised will be used towards future maintenance of the roof as the Master Thatcher will take time to train Beamish staff to manage ongoing repairs and maintenance to the roof for the future.

We would really appreciate your support with a kind donation towards us being able to showcase this fabulous exhibit to our thousands of visitors from around the world.