Thrashing in steam age…
Thrashing in steam age…
ENGLANDS eminence in steam powered farm machinery is long gone, but in its heyday it was as glorious as it was grimy.
Compared with other offerings on the age of steam, author Michael Thexton does not rely exclusively on grainy black and white pictures to tell his story*. His diligently researched theme is those companies which made a major contribution to the steam thrashing business, both at home and particularly abroad.
Major players, founded between 1842 and 1857 and based on Lincoln, were Clayton and Shuttleworth, Fosters, Robeys and Ruston Proctor.
Exports, mainly to Eastern Europe, encouraged Clayton and Shuttleworth to establish a major manufacturing subsidiary in Vienna where its Landstrasse Works produced a wide range of equipment from ploughs to thrashing machines and employed 1200 people at its peak in 1907.
Fosters and Robeys were well established in Budapest and Clayton and Shuttleworth also exported the first thrashing machines to Argentina in 1865. By 1907, out of some 5600 thrashers used in Argentina, 4864 were made in Britain with 1900 supplied by Clayton and Shuttleworth.
Traction engines modified to run on by-product straw were popular in those parts of the world where coal was expensive or unobtainable.
Between 1906 and 1912 it was estimated that Britain exported about 7000 thrashing sets a year including maize shellers and huskers, powered by either steam portable or traction engines. The turnover was about £2.3m a year and compared with a minor home market taking no more than 100 sets a year and valued at £55,000 a year during that period.
Major companies making complete thrashing sets included Richard Garrett and Sons, Leiston, Suffolk; Richard Hornsby and Sons, Grantham, Lincs; Marshall, Sons and Co, Gainsborough, Lincs, and Ransomes Simms and Jefferies, Ipswich, Suffolk. Lincoln-based companies played a large part in the total business and employed about 5500 people in the period between 1897 and 1904.
This book charts the remarkable history of Britains steam powered farm machinery industry during the Victorian era. Now overtaken by the tractor and combine harvester and consigned to history, the influence of the companies involved was brief but impressive while it lasted. It reflects credit on some fine engineers and astute businessmen who made and exported their equipment throughout the world. HPH
*The Steam Thrashing Trade by Michael Thexton, Regency Press, Chaucer House, Chaucer Business Park, Kemsing, Sevenoaks, Kent (£7.50).