Beam Engines in the UK

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PART 2 - other beam engines in the UK

SW

King Edward Mine Museum, Troon, Cornwall

This former mine was for many years used as part of the Camborne School of Mines to demonstrate both underground working and surface buildings, including tin processing. It is now a museum and is a developing tourist attraction.

In store here is the only surviving example of a single acting rotative Cornish beam engine that was latterly used for pumping and winding at Rostowrack Clayworks. It was built in 1851 by West & Son of St Blazey and the cylinder is 22" x 6'. It used to be displayed at the work's museum of Holman Bros in Camborne but has spent many years in store around the county. It is hoped that it will be re-erected here in due course.
SW6638 : King Edward mine - beam engine parts SW6638 : King Edward School of Mines - winding engine house

Heartlands, Robinson's Shaft, Pool, Cornwall

This major regeneration project is centred on the Robinson's Shaft of the former South crofty tin mine and includes the 80" Cornish beam pumping engine on this shaft. Although in the care of the National Trust for many years, this was, until very recently, inaccessible. This engine was built at the Copperhouse foundry, Hayle in 1854 and this is its fourth location. It was installed here in 1903 and worked until 1955. It pumped from 2,021 feet, delivering 60 or so gallons per stroke and developing a calculated maximum of 335 indicated horse power. The site is now open to the public and in 2012 there were two guided tours/day. However, in 2023 there were no scheduled tours but guided access was possible on paying a £20 fee for the guide's time. It was intended that the engine will be operated hydraulically in the future but as of 2023 there was no visible progress.
SW6641 : Robinson's Engine house and modern headgear at Pool SW6641 : Heartlands Project - Robinson's Shaft beam engine SW6641 : Heartlands Project - Robinson's Shaft Cornish beam engine SW6641 : Heartlands Project - Robinsons Shaft pumping engine

Here are some earlier photographs from when it was a working mine with no regular access.
SW6641 : Robinson's Shaft, south Crofty SW6641 : Heartlands Project - Robinson's Shaft Cornish beam pumping engine SW6641 : South Crofty Mine - Robinson's Cornish beam engine SW6641 : Robinson's 80" engine, South Crofty Mine

Goonvean China Clayworks, near St Stephen, Cornwall

This site was home to a 50" Cornish beam pumping engine built by Harvey & Co of Hayle in 1863 and used on three sites before being moved here in 1910. The engine ceased work in about 1955 and then lay deteriorating. It was removed by Century Millwrights in 2008, after the condensing plant had fallen down the shaft and just before part of the house went the same way. The engine is now in store for a possible project in Hayle and it is to be hoped that it will be re-erected in the future.
SW9455 : Cornish engine, Goonvean SW9455 : Goonvean China Clayworks - Cornish beam engine SW9455 : Goonvean China Clayworks - Cornish beam engine SW9455 : Goonvean China Clayworks - Cornish beam pumping engine. SW9455 : Goonvean China Clayworks - Cornish beam pumping engine

Parkandillick Clayworks, near St Stephen, Cornwall

This works is home to a nicely preserved 50" Cornish beam pumping engine built in 1852 by Sandys, Vivian & Co of the Copperhouse Foundry, Hayle and installed here in 1912. It stopped work in 1955 and can still be moved by low pressure compressed air. Access is by application to the owners Imerys, formerly English China Clays (ECC).
SW9456 : Parkandillack Engine House SW9456 : Parkandillick Clayworks - Cornish beam pumping engine SW9456 : Parkandillick Cornish engine - the cockpit SW9456 : Parkandillick clayworks - Cornish beam pumping engine SW9456 : Parkandillick beam engine - St Austell governor SW9456 : Parkandillick Clayworks - Cornish beam engine

SZ

Isle of Wight Museum Stores, Cothey Bottom, Ryde, Isle of Wight

This museum stores and research centre is housed in a failed museum venture and is home to a grasshopper beam engine that was formerly displayed at the long since closed Albany Steam Museum on the island. Built c1845 by Easton & Amos and latterly used at Marvin's Shipyard at Cowes. According to tradition it was originally used at Osborne House to drive a pump. Access is by prior arrangement only.

The slide valve cylinder is 12" x 20" and the flywheel is 9' diameter. It could be turned on compressed air but this is no longer the case.
SZ6090 : Museum store - grasshopper beam engine

SS

Swansea Museum, Swansea

This museum has a large engine beam and associated parallel motion on display al fresco. This is from the No. 2 pumphouse at Sudbrook and came from a 75" Cornish engine, the rest of which was scrapped. Built 1879 by Harvey & Co of Hayle, this is 30' long and weighs 20 tons. It is of unique riveted wrought iron construction.

No. 1 pumphouse contained six Cornish beam pumping engines erected in one house to drain the Severn Tunnel carrying trains between England and Wales.

The engines were scrapped about 1968 and nowadays they probably would have been saved. It was described by some as the 'greatest act of corporate vandalism'.
SS6592 : Swansea Museum - beam from Cornish beam engine

ST

Private collection, Somerton, Somerset

A private collector has acquired the beam engine that was formerly at E & W C French's tannery in Taunton. This works was on Tancred Street and contained a partly dismantled single cylinder A-frame beam engine by Bury, Curtis & Kennedy of Liverpool and possibly c1840s. It is believed to have been out of use since about 1947 and was removed to Poldark Mine, Wendron in 1986. It is now in store, part erected in Somerset.
ST2324 : E & W C French Ltd, tannery, steam engine.

L Shed, Princess Wharf, Bristol

The former Bristol Industrial Museum is now a museum of Bristol's history known as 'M Shed'. The museum's stores are now in the adjoining L Shed and there are bookable visits to these. There are two small dismantled beam engines here.
One is a four-column beam engine from the vinegar works of Purnell & Panter & Co, Bristol. This has a cylinder 14" x 49" with a short D slide valve. The beam has twin flitches and is 10' between end centres. The late George Watkins thought this was built c1822-1845 by Woodham and Bush of 17 Temple Back, Bristol.
The second engine is a single column beam engine with a single flitch beam 5' 2" between end centres and built c1820. The late George Watkins stated that up to 1900 it worked at a now unknown site in Bristol. From 1900 to 1921 it was the locomotive builders Peckett & Sons Ltd, Fishponds. In 1921 it moved to the Merchant Venturer's Technical College in Bristol. By 1963 it was to be found in store at the City Museum, Bristol and in 1989 was seen in store at Bristol Industrial Museum, M Shed.
No photographs

Glyn Pits, Pontypool,Torfaen

This long derelict site is home to a single cylinder beam engine built in 1845 by the Neath Abbey Ironworks. It has a 30" x 6' cylinder with drop valves and was used for pumping and winding. The engine and house are in very poor repair although a temporary protective structure has now been erected over it. The site has no official public access and is potentially dangerous but can be approached on foot.
ST2699 : Glyn Pits, Pontypool

SU

Southampton City Council museum store, Southampton

There are two marine beam engines in store that powered floating bridges at Woolston.

One is from Vessel No. 8 and is a twin beam overhead beam grasshopper engine by Day, Summers & Co, Southampton, 1890. This is a compound with cylinders 9.25 & 16 x 3’ 3 stroke. The vessel hauled itself along a steel rope and was 92’ long x 38’ wide. It was retired about 1960. It was originally displayed at Poldark Mine, near Wendron, Cornwall and the photograph shows it here. It and the engine below were transferred to Southampton Council's care during a rationalisation at Poldark.
SW6831 : Poldark Mine - floating bridge steam engine.

The other engine is from Vessel No. 10 and is a twin beam overhead beam engine by Day, Summers & Co, Southampton, 1928. This is a compound with cylinders 9.25 & 16.5" x 3’3" stroke. The vessel hauled itself along a steel rope.
SW6831 : Poldark Mine -floating bridge steam engine.

Science Museum Group, National Collections Centre, Wroughton

This site on a former airfield is home to a large number of exhibits that are in store for the Science Museum Group. The facilities are currently being improved and it is intended that from 2023 there will be public access, probably for parties. There are several important beam engines in store here, largely dismantled.
These include: -
An 1870 double beam blowing engine by John Penn and Son of Greenwich that blew the organ at the Royal Albert Hall. My picture of this shows it on loan to the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne.
NZ2463 : Discovery Museum, Newcastle - historic beam engine

Heslop's winding and pumping engine, 1795. This is dismantled.
NO PHOTOGRAPH

Grasshopper beam engine c1851. This was donated by the South London Brewery Ltd, Southwark in 1945.
NO PHOTOGRAPH

Cornish beam pumping engine built 1863 by Harvey & Co of Hayle, Cornwall. This came from Carpalla clay pit and is dismantled.
The only picture is of its original engine house.
SW9653 : Carpalla engine house
NO ENGINE PHOTOGRAPH

The cylinder assembly of a Middleton annular compound beam engine of 1866.
NO PHOTOGRAPH

Grasshopper beam engine of c1855, probably by Easton, Amos & Sons and missing the feed pump rod and outboard bearing. This was formerly on display at South Kensington (with feed pump rod and outboard bearing) and was acquired from the disbanded collection of the former British Transport Museum at Clapham.
TQ2679 : The Science Museum - grasshopper beam engine

TQ

Wrotham Park Estate Workshops, Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire

A single cylinder grasshopper beam engine by Easton & Amos of London and built 1856. Out of use since the 1930s. The boiler is long gone but the driven pumps survive next door. The engine has an unusual "air governor".
TQ2498 : Beam engine, Wrotham Park Estate Workshops

Ram Brewery, Wandsworth, Greater London

This site is home to a pair of Woolf compound A frame beam engines built by Wentworth & Sons of Wandsworth in 1835 and 1867. These ran until 1976 and c1980 and were then preserved in workable condition. Unfortunately the Brewery has closed and will be redeveloped. The engines will survive but are not currently accessible.
This shows both engines end to end in the same house.
TQ2574 : Ram Brewery - the two beam engines
These photograph are of the 1835 engine.
TQ2574 : Ram Brewery beam engine TQ2574 : Ram Brewery - 1835 beam engine
These are of the later 1867 engine.
TQ2574 : Ram Brewery - 1867 beam engine TQ2574 : Ram Brewery - 1867 beam engine

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

This Museum houses the sister engine to the grasshopper marine beam engine displayed at Markham Grange Steam Museum [q.v]. This is from the now-scrapped paddle tug Reliant/Old Trafford and dates from 1907.
This museum once displayed nearly all of the Paddle Tug Reliant that was built in 1907 by J T Eltringham of South Shields and fitted with a pair of grasshopper type side lever beam engines by Hepple & Co. Unfortunately the museum remodelled its Neptune Hall where the steam exhibits were housed and this is now all that remains on show. The starboard engine from Reliant. The port engine is on display at Markham Grange near Doncaster.
The cylinder is 30" x 4' 6" and of 80 nominal horsepower on steam at 40 psi. It can be demonstrated turning (and was turning when photographed) by means of a very intrusive motor and chain drive. The replica paddle wheel is on the wrong side of the engine (it would be in the middle of the engine room), far too narrow (should be about 46" wide) and the paddle gear lacks the feathering motion.
TQ3877 : Buoy Aground at Greenwich.
TQ3877 : National Maritime Museum - paddle tug engine

West Ham Pumping Station, Newham, Greater London

This houses a pair of Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines built by the Lilleshall Company of Oakengates, Shropshire between 1895 and 1900. They stopped in 1972. They have 22' flywheels and developed 240 horsepower at 8-12 rpm on steam at 120 psi. These were used for pumping sewage. There were also three inverted vertical compound engines driving centrifugal pumps but these have long since gone.
TQ3883 : West Ham Pumping Station TQ3883 : Steam engine, West Ham Pumping Station

Baker Street Windmill, Orsett, Essex

This windmill and steam mill complex has now been converted to a dwelling but retains an incomplete single cylinder 'A-frame' beam engine. This was built c1840 by Thomas Middleton of Southwark.
TQ6381 : Orsett Windmill, Bakers Lane, Orsett, Essex TQ6381 : Baker Street Windmill TQ6381 : Baker Street Mill - incomplete beam engine

TR

Canterbury Museum (store), Canterbury, Kent

A much overlooked engine is one of the stationary haulage engines from the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway. This was once displayed in Ashford but has for many years been stored in Canterbury. Some parts were alongside the road in Gas Street but it is understood that the cylinder at least has gone into more secure storage.
TR1457 : Gas Street, Canterbury
It has since been moved into the Whitstable Museum and Gallery where it is displayed on request in the summer months. It still requires much restoration work but at least the pieces are all in the same place again.
TR1066 : Whitstable Museum and Art Gallery, Oxford Street

TL

Greene King Brewery, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

This site has a small, anonymous grasshopper beam engine that came from a brewery in Biggleswade. It is in the open outside the tasting room and deserves better.
TL8563 : Greene King Brewery Bury St.Edmunds

Turnford Pumping Station, Wormley, Hertfordshire

This is home to an 1845 Boulton & Watt sidelever engine that drove pumps supplying drinking water. It was later compounded with a high pressure inverted vertical single cylinder that exhausted into it. This latter engine has long since gone, as have the pumps it drove. The site is owned by Thames Water and access is by permission only. There is no normal public access.
TL3604 : Turnford Pumping Station TL3604 : Steam engine, Turnford Pumping Station

TM

Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk

This is home to a grasshopper beam engine built in 1851 by W P Wilkins of Ipswich and used at Webbs Tannery in Combs. It is in store at Stowmarket and only visible on request.
TM0458 : Entrance gates at The Museum of East Anglian Rural Life TM0456 : Grasshopper beam engine, Webbs Tannery

SH

Dorothea Quarry, Talysarn, Gwynedd

Built to drain the Dorothea Quarry this was one of the last beam engines built (1919 for Watford Waterworks was probably the last). It was built by Holman Bros of Camborne in 1904 with a 68" cylinder and 10' stroke in the cylinder, 9' in the shaft. It stopped in 1956 and apart from some work in the 1970s by Dorothea Restoration Engineers, it has been gradually deteriorating ever since. It is not publicly accessible and even the local expert can find it difficult to get you in.
SH4953 : Dorothea beam engine SH4953 : Dorothea beam engine - outdoor side gear. SH4953 : Dorothea beam engine - the lower chamber. SH4953 : Dorothea beam engine - middle chamber SH4953 : Dorothea beam engine - the beam chamber.

SJ

Lumbhole Mill, Kettleshulme, Cheshire

This mill was built for the manufacture of candle wicks in the 1820s. It was water powered but an auxiliary single cylinder beam engine was added, probably in the 1830s when the mill was reconstructed following a fire. The engine is by an unknown maker but has a replacement slide valve cylinder by J & E Arnfield of New Mills. The cylinder is 18" x 52" and the engine has a single flitch cast beam and a Watt type governor. The engine is preserved in situ by the mill's owners and can only be visited by arrangement.
SJ9880 : Lumbhole Mill SJ9880 : Beam engine Lumb Hole Mill

SK

Sandfields Pumping Station, Lichfield, Staffordshire

This former South Staffordshire Waterworks Company site is now owned by a property developer and includes a beam engine house containing an 'up-country' Cornish beam engine built in 1873 by Jonah and George Davies of Tipton. The cylinder is 65" bore x 9' stroke and at 7 strokes per minute it pumped 2 million gallons/day of drinking water against a 355' head. A society has been formed to help preserve this interesting engine but it is not currently open to the public.
SK1108 : Sandfields Pumping Station, Lichfield SK1108 : Cornish beam pump, Sandfields Pumping station SK1108 : Beam of Cornish pump, Sandfields.

Wortley Top Forge, Wortley, Barnsley

This historic site is holding a very important beam engine in store for a private collector. The engine has been there al fresco for over 30 years and is covered by undergrowth. I do wonder if this will ever be re-erected again. It is a pusher compounded single cylinder beam engine from Ledgard Bridge Mills, Mirfield. The beam engine was built c1850 and has a slide valve cylinder 35.75" bore x 6' stroke. It was later compounded with a Corliss valve horizontal single cylinder engine 19" x 6' and on the opposite side of the wall where it drove onto a crankpin in a slab of metal attached to the spur gear on the far end of the crankshaft. The engine was removed about 1981.
The engine is currently stored behind these buildings - SK2999 : Wortley Top Forge - storage area SK2999 : Wortley Top Forge - stored beam engine.
It came from this mill - SE2019 : Ledgard Bridge Mills, Mirfield.
These are some in situ photographs - SE2019 : Beam engine, Ledgard Bridge Mills SE2019 : The beam loft, Ledgard Bridge Mills SE2019 : Ledgard Bridge Mills - pusher steam engine SE2019 : Ledgard Bridge Mills - steam engine

Snarestone Pumping Station, Snarestone, Leicestershire

This former waterworks pumping station is now a private house and most of the surviving machinery was stripped out, leaving just the cranks and flywheels. As built in 1890-2 it contained a pair of single cylinder rotative beam engines by Bever, Dorling of Dewsbury. When the site ceased too use steam the engines were partly scrapped but the beams, connecting rods, crankshaft and flywheels remained in situ.
The beams have now been erected on a plinth at the nearby Snarestone Wharf on the Ashby Canal.
SK3410 : Snarestone Pumping station SK3410 : Snarestone Pumping Station - beam engine remains SK3410 : Beam engine parts, Snarestone Pumping Station SK3410 : Snarestone Wharf - engine beams

Great Central Railway, Ruddington, Nottinghamshire

This transport heritage centre is not all railways and includes this quite pretty little engine that is sadly missing its flywheel. It was originally installed in Nicholson's Gin Distillery, Finsbury, London and was by an unknown maker, possibly in the 1850s. It has a simple slide valve cylinder of 10" x 3' (according to the late George Watkins) and was of about 20 horsepower. It was on display at Loughborough University in the department of Electrical Engineering but at some point came to find itself at Ruddington. It is housed in a building that is not normally open to the public but if you can find the right person you may be rewarded with a private viewing.
SK5732 : Great Central Railway Ruddington - beam engine SK5732 : Great Central Railway Ruddington - beam engine

TG

Lound Pumping Station, Lound, Suffolk

This pretty little pumping station still supplies water to the Great Yarmouth area and houses two grasshopper beam engines built in 1854 by Easton & Amos of London. They were of 28 horsepower and drove three throw well pumps. They last ran in 1929 but are well looked after alongside modern pumps. One can be turned by an electric motor.
TG5000 : Lound Waterworks TG5000 : Lound Waterworks - Beam Engines TG5000 : Lound Waterworks - Beam Engine

SD

Queen Street Mill, Harle Syke, Lancashire

This site has in store for Lancashire County Council a small single cylinder A-frame beam engine by an unknown maker at an unknown date. Despite its diminutive size, it was used in industry, apparently to drive a machine for spinning bowler hats at Denton near Stockport.
SD8634 : Queen Street Mill - stored artefact

SE

Calderdale Industrial Museum, Square Works, Halifax, Calderdale

This museum was closed and mothballed in 2000 but is now having occasional open days and it hoped to open it with a volunteer association. It is home to a single cylinder 'A-frame' beam engine. The engine is by an unknown maker c1860s and from Roslin Gunpowder Mill near Edinburgh. It was later displayed at the ICI explosives works at Stevenson, Ardeer. The cylinder is 15" x 30". It had been preserved without its flywheel and a gear has been used to replace this missing item.
SE0925 : Calderdale Industrial Museum - beam engine

Bradford Industrial Museum, Moorside Mills, Eccleshill, Bradford

This museum is home to a beam engine that has been McNaught compounded but never properly erected. Erection started nearly 40 years ago but never got very far. The engine was built as a single cylinder in 1861 by William Bracewell of Burnley with a 24" x 48" cylinder. In 1900 the power was increased with the addition of a 18" x 24" high pressure cylinder between the crank and the beam centre.
SE1835 : Bradford Industrial Museum, Moorside Mills
No engine photograph

TA

Springhead Pumping Station, Hull

This pumping station is home to a 90" Cornish beam pumping engine that was built in 1876 by Bells, Lightfoot & Co of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The beam is a wrought iron box girder. The engine operated two lift pumps in the well and a force pump with a cast iron balance box that could be filled with water to work at varying heads. For a time, this was the Yorkshire Water Museum but it closed some years back and the building deteriorated. The building's fabric has now been renovated but the engine is now looking a bit sad.
TA0429 : Springhead Pumping Station TA0429 : Cornish beam engine, Springhead TA0429 : Cornish beam engine, Springhead Pumping Station TA0429 : Springhead Pumping Station - Cornish beam engine

NZ

Dalton Pumping Station, near Cold Hesledon, County Durham

This is home to two Cornish beam pumping engines built in 1879 by Davy Bros of Sheffield. The cylinders are 72" by 9' stroke and ceased work in 1940. They then lay derelict and incomplete for many years before a partial cosmetic restoration in the 1990s. Plans to turn the listed building into a pub/restaurant seem to have fallen through and there is no regular access here. More recently, in 2020, it was announced that the site was to become a wedding venue.
NZ4146 : Dalton Pumping Station NZ4146 : Dalton Pumping Station

Beamish - The North of England Open Air Museum, Beamish, County Durham

There are several beam engines in the Regional Store that is shared with Tyneside and is listed above. In addition there are two engines in the main museum area.
The first is the dismantled beam engine built c1830 by Hawks of Gateshead and used at Seaham Harbour to operate ballast cranes, a storm defence boom and water pumps for domestic supply. It is not known when, if ever, it will be re-erected.
NZ2254 : Seaham Harbour Beam Engine, Pockerley Waggonway, Beamish Museum

The other is an 1823 grasshopper beam engine built by Robert Stephenson for the Stephenson works in Newcastle-on-Tyne. This was for many years on display in the Birmingham Museum of Science & Industry in Newhall Street, Birmingham.
SP0687 : Birmingham Museum of Science & Industry - grasshopper beam engine
It then moved to store and then to a display in the former Stephenson works where it had been built and used.
NZ2463 : Stephenson's Works, No. 20 South Street
Sadly it was forced out by development plans and Beamish provided a home in the Pockerley Waggonway shed.
NZ2254 : The Great Shed, Pockerley Waggonway, Beamish Museum Sadly there is no photograph of the engine at Beamish.

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