Geograph - photograph every grid square

This 13' diameter rope drive flywheel is from a 400 horsepower horizontal tandem compound engine built in 1912 by Wood Bros of Sowerby Bridge for Bathford Paper Mills. It stopped in 1966 and was removed in 1974 for preservation. Sadly it was later scrapped and the only parts to remain are this flywheel and the Lumb's governor that is at Grane Mill, Haslingden. The crank had been cut off the shaft and it was probably this that led to the engine's ultimate loss - repair being no easy task. The wheel is in two halves with 8 spokes. It is bolted together at the rim and held at the hub by shrink rings. The internal toothed ring is for engaging the barring engine to turn the engine for maintenance and into the starting position.

The governor is now at Ellenroad Engine House Museum and is nicely restored alongside a horizontal single cylinder engine from Potclays in Stoke-on-Trent. The governor is turned by the engine for demonstration but does not actually govern it.