Apologies for my absence

Hello everyone.

I know I haven't posted in some considerable time but I thought that it was about time to get back on the wagon so to speak, sadly I have no more news or pictures but I am hoping to go on a trip to Bedford soonish, sadly I don't think this will happen this side of the winter solstice so most likely a Summer solstice or Easter trip I would have thought as I now have to navigate the maze of college

Cameron

Building a replica.

Good Morning Everyone,

I was just thinking what would it be like to buid a working replica of the Howards Farmers Engine (Pictured in an earlier Post - Thanks to David Fowler for that one) and also how much would it cost?

Is there anyone out there that could help me with this one? I thought it would be nice for the world to have another Howards engine in the world and if we did a fundraiser I would definetly donate the proceeds to a chosen charity and also to the Steam Apprentice Club & National Traction Engine Trust as they are the people helping kids (up to the age of 21) get experience in driving and maintaining Traction engines.

if anyone could give me a quick heads up that would be nice.

Thanks
Cameron

Email from David Fowler

Hi folks, 

This morning I turned on to find the below email and images from David Fowler, so here they are, the only thing I can't believe is that he turned down an offer to drive this thing, WHO DOES THAT? SERIOUSLY?

Hi Cameron

Sorry to say I have only just come across your site! Both my grandfather & great grandfather were moulders at the Works. I give talks about Bedford’s old industries including the Britannia Works

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service at Bedford has a lot of information on the Works, including old catalogues

My photos are of the only surviving Farmers Engine rescued from Henry Ford - I sat on it, but declined to drive it!!

If you use the Howards 1860s print, please acknowledge The Higgins Museum, Bedford

One famous visitor to the Works was Garibaldi in 1864, who came to see a demonstration of steam ploughing

Regards

David Fowler

BEDFORD TOUR GUIDE

My first post and its a New Year Supprise

We unearthed a picture in the post Christmas tidy up and thought you might like it

Making Ploughshares At The Britannia Ironworks, Bedford

Hello everyone, Cameron's Dad here, I've had this genuine print for some years now, it was purchased appropriately from a gallery in Bedford Town, not that far from the iron works. The print is dated 1874 and I would say represents the very peak of horse plough production at the works. The scene is a very industrious one and is illustrative of prodigious output necessary to supply the Empires ploughing needs. These production sheds survived in the most part right up until the early 1980,s when they were demolished, a gated housing development now occupies the site, with just the wonderful gatehouse arch surviving. It is an interesting exercise to overlay modern Health and Safety requirement upon this scene, especially when one considers that the earliest of the child labour laws were only just being introduced at this time. Social authors such as Charles Dickens made frequent references to such working conditions and were part of a growing movement to improve such working conditions

New Year update

Well folks its another year on and we are hitting hard times at the moment so I have added a "Paypal Donate" button so we can do more research  sadly there is less and less we can do free from our Hampshire base of operations so I ask you to donate whatever you can so we can do things like check online archives which sadly costs money to do.
We will be trying to find as much out in the new year as possible but we are coming up against a wall at the moment, Our plans for this year are the Great Dorset Steam Fair in the summer and maybe the Bedfordshire Steam And Country Fair if we are lucky, there is an engine that was made by Howards that usually turns up apparently so I hope to be taking some photos of that, I should be free around then as the course I am currently on finishes this July so I will try my best to attend.
Anyway I am now back online from Christmas and hope to be keeping you up to date on the restoration of the plough so look forward to some pictures and maybe some feeds.

All that remains for me to say is Happy new year and if you have any photos or information send it in to my Email (we will include your name if unless you say otherwise)

Cameron and Christopher