Those of us who ‘play’ with our old machinery, know full well we must always treat it with much respect as, without a doubt, if we do not, it will come back and bite us. Safety is paramount on the rally grounds at today’s vintage events worldwide, and that should also apply at home, in the barn, or the workshop.

In the early days of working the machinery on our farms, structured safety was not really considered to be of much importance (as opposed to common sense), as farmers and other contractors strove to make a living for their families. 

As I look back at machinery-related accidents reported over 100-odd years ago here in England, I note that they generally ended up being fatal and, sadly, appeared to be very common.

The three stories set out here are, in every way true accounts extracted from several newspaper reports and other archives and rewritten here.  

The Wingham Agricultural Implement Company and the demise of Mr William Allen

The Wingham Agricultural Implement Company was situated in a small Kent village of the same name (only some 15kms from where I live), just south of the city of Canterbury 

Today, it is still a small sleepy place with the main street running through its centre. The firm commenced trading in about 1888 as a repairer and supplier of all types of farm machinery and became very well known in this part of east Kent.  In later years, they ran threshing machines driven by traction engines, steam ploughing enginee sets, road rollers, steam road haulage, and they were also agents after World War One for the famed Sentinel Steam Waggon company. They ran a fleet of waggons which were hired out to local breweries in later years. 

In 1915, the firm changed its name to the Wingham Engineering Company Ltd, owing to a change in the law, as many companies were required to do at this time. The owners of this engineering concern were the Elgar family who still continue today in real estate in this area of east Kent. 

Looking at the Road Locomotive Society’s Kent Owner’s Engine List (which is not complete), it shows they owned many of the famous engines and other machinery which were produced here in the UK from the 1877s right through to the Sentinel Steam Waggon era in 1933. The list indicates there were 137 steam road engines, which the firm owned and ran during the aforesaid timeframe, with many of them having their own fleet number. Besides the steam fleet, they also ran petrol and diesel lorries up until the end of the firm’s existence in the late 1960s.

During this time, a number of commissions were undertaken for various clients. One in particular that comes to mind was the now-famous Foden 6 ton steam truck, No. 12228, of March 1926, named Britannia, which circumnavigated the globe during the 1970s. 

A selection of elderly fitters and machinists, who had worked for the firm in earlier years (and therefore, had the necessary skills in steam), were engaged to carry out the refurbishment of this steam truck for this global tour. 

Part of this trip included a visit to Australia, arriving at Darwin in May 1971, and departing Melbourne in December 1971 for New Zealand. A number of well-known steam men in Australia were part of its crew at this time. This truck was the last steam road vehicle to be worked on at the new works, a mile or so from the one in the artist’s view in Pic 1.

Back in 1905, just before Christmas, a serious accident occurred involving a large road engine (as they were referred to in those times) usually fitted with three road speeds and compound cylinders (and sometimes, today, called road locomotives), which resulted in the death of one of their
key workers.

During the 1890s, the firm owned and ran several Aveling and Porter, Rochester, and Kent road engines as well as a number of Charles Burrell and Sons engines, built at Thetford, Norfolk. 

Although I have been unable to find out which engine was in this accident, it seems likely that this engine could have been Burrell Build No. 2081 of 1898, which was sent away from the works on 26th April in that year (1905) and rated at 8nhp, with a double crank compound. It was a secondhand engine at this time, having been purchased from another Kent contractor.
It was sold back to the Burrell firm in 1910, possibly as a trade-in for a new engine. 

The accident happened when a big road engine was returning to the Wingham Works from the small village of Barham, about 7 miles away, just off the main road from Canterbury to the port of Dover.  It was quite possibly hauling stone chippings for road construction, as most highways were still unpaved at this time. 

As the engine was passing though Wingham, hauling two large trucks of some considerable weight even without a load, Mr William Allen, aged 41, who was a foreman with the firm, was on the engine but not in the driving position. He was sitting in the coal bunker/tender, when at about 9.30am by some unknown means, he fell and was killed instantly after being run over by the two heavy trucks being towed by the engine. 

The Kentish Gazette, reported on the accident on 6th January 1906, and the County Coroner, Mr R.M. Mercer, returned a verdict of “Accidental Death” after holding the inquest in Wingham where witnesses such as the driver of the engine, Mr John Garling, and George Castle, who was walking behind the engine, testified to the nature of William Allen on the day and the knowledge they had of the incident.

At the funeral, there were very many tributes to Mr Allen as he was from a well-known local family. It was a sad day in east Kent, without doubt, but enough to say not unusual in this type of work. 

One of the reasons I know so much about this accident is that during the 1980s, I was contacted by Mrs Kay Y. Allen, of Gisborne on the North Island of New Zealand, after she was put in touch with me. Kay is a distant relative of Mr William Allen, and included in some of the paperwork she so kindly sent to me, was a testimonial and a nice photo of the Allens from her family archive. 

The testimonial (reference) was dated 2nd November 1908, for Albert Edward Allen (who was a relation of Mr William Allen) from the manager, Mr Fredrick. M. Elgar, of the Wingham Agricultural Implement Coy Ltd, indicating he had served as an apprentice during the past four years and eight months, as an engineer fitter and turner, during which period he has given us ‘every satisfaction’ and I have great pleasure in giving him a good character reference in every respect. 

The sad demise of a young boy Arthur Edward Robinson

An inquest into the death of Arthur Edward Robinson, aged four years, of 6 Minden Terrace, Hospital Lane, Boston, Lincolnshire (120 odd miles north of London), was opened on 2nd May 1904. The young boy died after being run over by a wagon attached to a traction engine on the Horncastle Road, on 30th April, opposite the well-known Maude Foster windmill, built in 1819.

His brother, Leonard Robinson, a nine year-old, told the inquest that he was playing with his little brother on the Horncastle Road, and they ran by the side of the traction engine which, at the time, was not moving. He ran successfully between the engine and wagon but, as his brother followed him, the engine moved and he was knocked down by the wagon attached to the engine by a steel A-frame drawbar.

Mr Walter Leverton of Frithville, a small village nearby the scene of this tragedy, was the driver of the engine and advised that he worked for Mr Joseph Bowser. 

On the day of this accident, he stopped the engine to pick up water opposite Sydney Villa on the Horncastle Road. He moved off and had gone about 100 yards when he was ordered to stop by a youth with a hand cart. 

He advised the Coroner, Mr Leverton, that there were three men manning the engine - with two on the engine as the law demanded at the time. He was the driver, the red flagman was walking beside the engine, and the steersman, Mr Squires, was at the engine’s controls. 

Reginald Wray, an errand boy in the employ of Mr J. Oldrid, said he was wheeling his cart behind the steam traction engine. He immediately ran and asked the engine to stop. 

A further witness, Mr John V. Beecham, told the inquest that the wagon being towed by the engine had struck the little boy. 

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death and donated their fees to the boy’s family and gave two shillings to Mr R. Wray as a reward for his good nature. The jury was advised that the Robinson family was very poor and the father, being unable to secure employment in the Boston area, had found work in Birmingham, a huge industrial city, 116 miles to the west. The boy’s mother lived in Boston with her eight children, so a subscription was opened to assist them and within two days of the accident £1 1/6 pence had been received up to this time.  

As mentioned at the start of the article, these road accidents were all too common over 120 years ago. 

When attempting to find out who actually owned the engine in this Boston accident, sadly, after much research, I was unable to find out if it was actually Mr Joseph Bowser - he may have had this engine under a hire purchase agreement and so did not own it until the figure was paid off. 

Records, however, do show that his son, Fredrick E. Bowser purchased a new Davey Paxman TE, No. 15481, of 6nhp with cylinder size 8 x 12 inches, was despatched on 7th September 1910. This machine was scrapped in January 1952. 

Paxman machinery of all types were highly regarded by buyers in Queensland around this era. It is rather interesting I think, that Mr F. E. Bowser purchased a new engine from a maker over 130 miles south at Colchester, Essex, rather than from one of the Lincolnshire makers. There is no doubt that Davey Paxman engines were of some quality and well constructed. 

The man with the red flag -
Mr Daniel Hubbard

I also found reference to another traction engine accident in the Lincolnshire history pages. It happened in August 1901, in the village of Frampton West, not too far from Boston, when the traction engine of Mr Joseph Dawson was making its way to a farm to aid the threshing process. 

Sixty-year-old Daniel Hubbard from Boston, was the man waving the red flag in front of the engine, as required by law, to warn that the engine was coming, when he tripped and fell in front of the behemoth which caused his instantaneous death. 

I feel that something is not quite right here, as it is well known that the man carrying the red flag was required to be well in front of the engine, perhaps over 20 yards away from danger. 

Unfortunately, some of these reports are not very detailed, as in the case of this Boston tragedy as it did not indicate the manufacturer of the engine.

Bearing in mind that, in 1900 there were a number of big engineering companies who were producing steam road engines and other machinery, namely, Ruston Procter and Co., Ltd, Clayton and Shuttleworth Co., Ltd, and William Foster and Co., Ltd, all in Lincoln, as well as the well-known Gainsborough engine manufacturer, William Marshall Sons and Co., Ltd, whose works were 54 miles north from Boston.  

To give readers an idea of the cost of these engines in 1899, I consulted their catalogue, which I have in my collection. The price of a 5nhp Marshall TE was, when new, £420. The next size up was a 6nhp engine priced at £460, which equates today to just over £60,635 (AUD$109,110). Then came the 7nhp size at £485, and finally, the 8nhp at £520. These prices included various tools, and consumables such as gauge glasses on the boiler, gaskets for the boiler man holes, and other parts. 

As always, prices could be increased by the manufacturer at any time. These prices listed in my catalogue were for single cylinder traction engines - compound engines were a lot higher in price - but were fixed when a final price was quoted to a customer on receiving an order at Marshall’s, Britannia Iron Works. This was, of course, quite a financial outlay for a small threshing farm contractor. 

Marshall trailer wagons were offered in four sizes - 4, 6, 8, and 10 ton capacity with the main chassis being made of the finest British oak. They were spring-mounted with brakes, and therefore were very strong in order to cope on rough roads and carrying heavy loads. Many engine manufacturers in England offered them as an extra to an engine.

*Tim Keenan

References:

Chronicles of a Country Works, R.H.Clark, published 1952 (a history of Charles Burrell and Sons). 

The Story of St Nicholas Works – A History of Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd 1803-1928 by M.R. Lane, 1994. 

The story of the Britannia Iron Works 1848 to 1992 by William Marshall Sons and Company Ltd, Gainsborough, Lincs, UK by Michael R. Lane, published 1993. 

Various editions of the Kentish Gazette. 

The Lincolnshire Gazette for May 2004, a history newspaper with many stories of Lincolnshire life, sadly now not published. 

The Road Locomotive Society Kent Engine Owner’s List by Allan Duke.

Mr Alf Beeching, UK, a first class history researcher and a good friend. 

Mr Terry Pratchett. 

Many thanks also to Mrs Kay Y Allen, New Zealand,
for providing detailed history of her ancestors.