It's not often you go on a school trip and are confronted with a body and a murder to solve, but it's happening at Beamish Museum.

The whodunnit day is the museum's latest initiative to help pupils learn about Victorian life .

First at the scene of the crime - the railway station - were 46 pupils from the Village Primary School in Thornaby.

A slip of paper which had the victim's Co-op number on it was found in his packet of cigarettes, sending one group of young sleuths to the store to find his name in the dividends book.

Another lead was a message in another pocket, telling him that his bicycle would be repaired and ready to pick up from Beamish garage.

Costumed characters at the museum provided the young detectives with vital clues and gave them an insight into life in an industrial town in 1913.

The murder mystery day is the idea of Simon Woolley, keeper of education at the museum, who based it on the murder of John Nisbet on a train from Newcastle.

Nisbet's body was found under a seat of a train travelling between Stannington and Morpeth on March 18, 1910.

The book-keeper for Stobswood Colliery Company had been to Newcastle to collect £370 of workers wages from the bank and was returning to the colliery on the train when he was shot five times at close range.

Mr Woolley designed the whodunnit to encourage children to use problem solving skills and team work as they pooled their information gleaned from their investigations to find the identity of the killer.

It also helps Key Stage 2 children, aged between seven and 11 to learn actively about the Victorian way of life. He said it took him three months to complete the mystery trail and then he was faced with the problem of finding a 'body,' which was thankfully provided by Durham fire brigade.

He said: "It took me ages to figure it all out. I went up a number of blind allies but I used the resources that Beamish has and researched it using artefacts and interpreting them for a murder mystery."

The murder mystery activity is available to schools throughout winter on a pre-booked basis. For further information ring (0191) 370 4011 or (0191) 370 4012.