The Boulton and Watt engine is a tribute to how well made it was, the same machine, in the same location, still doing the job for which it was designed and installed, 210 years later.
Paul and Rebecca, Thank you so very much for sharing this video. Seeing a Beam engine operating in the 21st century doing the job for which it was built is a real treat. A special extended thanks to all of the preservation minded people who keep history alive for all of us to see. :)
Spent many winters weekends in the early 90's down that well servicing the foot vales amongst other things. I can also claim to have had the title of chief driver once. My first job as a volunteer was cleaning all the soot from the flue which runs from the boiler house to the chimney. You'd be amazed where soot sticks, even after a couple of showers🙄
@@pwhitewick Not only a long drop, but a very particular smell. In years gone by (not that many) there was a distinct lack of mesh guards, great fun when one had to venture down there when everything was hot, smelly and very steamy.....
Always lovely to see the beam engines and Crofton. Went there on the first date with my wife. We'd found we had a shared interest in industrial archeology over lunch and it was nearby.
Ah yes about 25 years ago i visited with a friend of mine ... also a mechanical engineer ... the solutions arrived at to move that amount of water per hour were amazing ... i take my hat to the design and construction team , not to mention those who continue to run the system today to prove and show how well the system worked . Great to see your video of this bit of UK Engineering history thank you .
as a child, I loved roaming around the former copper mines at Moonta in South Australia. They no longer house Cornish beam-engines, but the engine-house ruins always fascinated me, and even now, I like to imagine what they were like when in operation. Thanks for yet another excellent video!
I lived in Reading during my school/uni days and my dad was huge steam fan, so naturally we visited the Crofton Beam Engine regularly. I remember the chimney being rebuilt and my dad telling me at great length why this was important 😊. Brilliant place to visit - huge working Victorian steam beam engines, a canal to explore with well-tended footpaths and locks, plus a mainline railway with both passenger and freight traffic. All in lovely countryside too!
This was excellent, no larking around. I first and last visited Crofton in May 1971 when they had a steaming day. It was a fabulous day out. Highly recommend a visit here.
Excellent. And what a very knowledgeable young girl who gave you the tour 👌 I noticed when she said "that ladder all the way down there", Rebecca's face looked pretty much as mine would've, slowly stepping back 😂
@@pwhitewick Typical manhole size is an oval 16x12 inches so you have to work your way into the boiler proper through that, than wiggle your way around to be able to have a good look at things. Then there's the sooty bits where the fumes go through. That's why they invented a boilersuit ;-)
Part of my job used to be arranging Boiler Inspections and other statutory inspections on things such as lifts and cranes, power presses and dust extraction equipment . I worked for an insurance company who had a nationwide staff of engineer surveyors with various specialisations.
I volunteer at Claymills victorian pumping station and it's very rewarding. I've not been to Crofton yet, but will in the future. It's well worth helping out if they need volunteers :)
That was fascinating. Thank you. I had never really thought about where the water comes from to go into the canal ...now I know! Another entertaining Sunday evening. 👏👏👏
Fascinating and inspirational. It helps one to realize the amount of work, intelligence, know-how, courage and perseverance is devoted to building the world around us. The guide was quite helpful, too.
went there 30 Jul 2019 steampunk event it was quite busy lovely day out got some nice footage of the engines in steam been there quite a few times but it's long way from where I live I learnt some new things from your video so thanks Very well presented and informativeas always
Excellent video as always: thank you! Quite appropriate for me as last week, I spent some time in a narrowboat sitting on the bottom of a lock on the Grand Union because someone the previous day had left a paddle half-open and the the canal pounds had pretty much emptied. The resident ducks looked happy, though, as they could reach weed to eat that was normally inaccessible!
Great timing for this video, only yesterday I interviewed the Kennet and Avon Trust on Kennet Radio, to publicise their waterways festival in Newbury today. I was also at Crofton a few weeks ago with my film camera. Not far away is Wilton Windmill too, preserved but a separate piece of history.
Been there myself quite a few years back now and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well worth a visit both on steaming and non-steaming days. Theres more of these engines out there than you think!
Beautiful Crofton Pumping Station! I work at a pumping station in Darlington called Tees Cottage Pumping Station. It’s also steam powered! If your ever near Darlington and want to see it let me know! We have open days but we can also do private tours.
I was wondering about Catherine the other day. That's spooky. I didn't know she was working there. I think a visit to those engines is all the more in order now.
Wow fascinating. We must have cycled near there on our way to Bath. Wish we'd known about it as would have loved to visit. Sign another life now. Cheers and thanks.
Great video. The brief shot of the advert for the Murder Mystery and Hog Roast at Wilton Windmill sounds uncannily like the script for disposing of the evidence in an episode of Midsomer Murders...
absolutely superb, brilliant informative!!! love this kind of content, used to love Fred Dibnah and his industrial history programmes. More of this kind of content please...... think you may have a guest presenter now too, Catherine. She was great 👍 Rebecca certainly didn't look comfortable looking down the well/shaft
Maybe Rebecca could try the walkway on the Newport Transporter Bridge. It's very high up and you can see through the mesh floor as you cross. Interesting place and one of only six in the world still working but closed until next year.
Well this is a first--I had to watch this video twice because I was so distracted by your stunning tour guide Catherine. Usually your photographic skills take my breath away, Paul! (Btw of course Rebecca's lovely too, but I know she's married lol)
LTC Rolt - A great writer and supporter of the preservation of the canal network. Robert Aickman, similarly, but better known for his horror stories. LTC Rolt also wrote similar stories, though sadly, not so many - One volume only - 'Sleep No More', contains some of the most disquieting stories, based on mines, railways, canals, foundries, and a car racing circuit, that you will ever read. He definitely had talent. Rolt and Aickman had a big falling out, though, which they never really recovered from, before their deaths.
Both fascinating characters in their different ways. The first secretary for the IWA was he writer Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was married to Peter Scott at the time. She had an affair with Aickman and, later in life, went on to marry Kingsley Amis (Martin Amis was her stepson and he credits her for encouraging him). However, that barely scratches the surface of her life, which is documented in her autobiography Slipstream named, in part, for her time with the IWA and how she was often in the slipstream of events and more influential men. Tom Rolt's second wife Sonia is also a very interesting character, and she became important in the conservation movement in her own right.
I wondered if this would be Crofton? Many years ago (mid 1980s) I spent several weekends with a work colleague who was a volunteer here. I remember cutting up the old boilers with an oxy-torch before they were replaced with retired ones from a tobacco processing factory near Bristol. Great to see things still going strong.
it’s weird seeing canals and the support infrastructure discussed and seeing trains roll by: the very things that brought them into disuse… thankfully this key piece of transportation history is kept intact and working and being used alongside the modern equivalent
The railway put the canal out of business. After being derelict volunteers started to restore it and now it's a great leisure asset. BTW, not far from the pumping engine the canal goes in a tunnel (Bruce tunnel) and under the railway. There is no towpath so walkers ascend up steps, go under the railway, and then descend to the canal at the other end of the tunnel. Before motorised canal boats the boatmen had to haul themselves through the tunnel using a chain attached to the wall of the tunnel while the horse when over the hill.
The Crofton beam engines were high on my list of places to visit when I lived in London, but a new job in a new country intervened - thanks for virtually fulfilling the plan. So in fact (if my geography is correct), the eastern half of the climb to the summit pound is filled naturally from Wilton Water near Great Bedwyn. There is a levels difference of 12 metres between Wilton Water and the summit pound, which is overcome using the two pumps you feature here (or electric pumps in normal time). A culvert links the reservoir to the Crofton well. Although the water can obviously flow in both directions down from the summit pound, in fact it is only needed to replenish the western half of the climb, i.e. from Bath to Crofton (plus the locks back down to the Wilton pound).
I liked it when you clarified that you were Paul... Though I don't think many of us would have thought you were Rebecca! Maybe if you put on a red wig...
I've been to Crofton several times an amazing place on a steam or not. I believe the boiler was from the swindon railway works and used to drive equipment and the famous clocking off whistle which is now only heard on the museum steam days and the bear festival but powered by a traction engine. Having moved from ear shot of the Swindon my nearest beam engine is at Minions ! Great Video Thanks Guys
The Boulton and Watt engine is a tribute to how well made it was, the same machine, in the same location, still doing the job for which it was designed and installed, 210 years later.
Simple design, easy to maintain.
And standing in when those new fangled electric pumps failed - you couldn't make this stuff up!
H, hm, there's one down at Leawood, working as well.
Birmingham born
Paul and Rebecca, Thank you so very much for sharing this video. Seeing a Beam engine operating in the 21st century doing the job for which it was built is a real treat. A special extended thanks to all of the preservation minded people who keep history alive for all of us to see. :)
Spent many winters weekends in the early 90's down that well servicing the foot vales amongst other things. I can also claim to have had the title of chief driver once. My first job as a volunteer was cleaning all the soot from the flue which runs from the boiler house to the chimney. You'd be amazed where soot sticks, even after a couple of showers🙄
Up your own drain pipe no doubt!
I like this channel more and more with every video I see. Very well presented and informative. Thank you both (and all)
Thank you. Very kind.
Rebecca didn't look happy when looking down to the bottom of the engine, well done for keeping your nerve!
Twas a Loooong drop indeed
@@pwhitewick nerves of steel!
i only noticed it due to your post, she did look a bit like she was glad Paul didn’t go down there
then again, he’d only do that if it was abandoned 😉
@@pwhitewick Not only a long drop, but a very particular smell. In years gone by (not that many) there was a distinct lack of mesh guards, great fun when one had to venture down there when everything was hot, smelly and very steamy.....
She suddenly appeared too..! I was wondering where she was ....
Went here to ,loverly visit and i mentioned id come after seeing your video ,they remebered you :)
Ah wonderful. Thanks Richard.
@@pwhitewick then i went to monkton farleigh sidings...tunnel..going bk to crofton for the steaming day...
Always lovely to see the beam engines and Crofton. Went there on the first date with my wife. We'd found we had a shared interest in industrial archeology over lunch and it was nearby.
Intriguing, perfect vlog created by Rebecca Catherine(she really knew her stuff) and Paul. Thanks, and take care.
Ah yes about 25 years ago i visited with a friend of mine ... also a mechanical engineer ... the solutions arrived at to move that amount of water per hour were amazing ... i take my hat to the design and construction team , not to mention those who continue to run the system today to prove and show how well the system worked . Great to see your video of this bit of UK Engineering history thank you .
Every video is a pleasure to watch. Thanks Paul and Rebecca 👍🏻
Thanks Ian.
as a child, I loved roaming around the former copper mines at Moonta in South Australia. They no longer house Cornish beam-engines, but the engine-house ruins always fascinated me, and even now, I like to imagine what they were like when in operation. Thanks for yet another excellent video!
I do enjoy this channel. It makes my Monday mornings when I get round to viewing it. Thanks.
I lived in Reading during my school/uni days and my dad was huge steam fan, so naturally we visited the Crofton Beam Engine regularly. I remember the chimney being rebuilt and my dad telling me at great length why this was important 😊. Brilliant place to visit - huge working Victorian steam beam engines, a canal to explore with well-tended footpaths and locks, plus a mainline railway with both passenger and freight traffic. All in lovely countryside too!
This was excellent, no larking around. I first and last visited Crofton in May 1971 when they had a steaming day. It was a fabulous day out.
Highly recommend a visit here.
Fasciinating!!! Love anything "British engineering at its finest". Very informative.
I love how elegant the Victorian engineering solutions were combined with the sturdiness and chunkiness of the execution.
This was a cracking video.
Excellent. And what a very knowledgeable young girl who gave you the tour 👌
I noticed when she said "that ladder all the way down there", Rebecca's face looked pretty much as mine would've, slowly stepping back 😂
Wonderful story & pictures in a a beautiful place many thanks paul & rebecca kind regards bob.
Boiler Inspector. There's a job you don't see advertised often! Fantastic video.
Not one I would envy too!
@@pwhitewick Typical manhole size is an oval 16x12 inches so you have to work your way into the boiler proper through that, than wiggle your way around to be able to have a good look at things. Then there's the sooty bits where the fumes go through. That's why they invented a boilersuit ;-)
Part of my job used to be arranging Boiler Inspections and other statutory inspections on things such as lifts and cranes, power presses and dust extraction equipment . I worked for an insurance company who had a nationwide staff of engineer surveyors with various specialisations.
We ave a boiler inspector in to inspect our boiler every year. He's in his early seventies but still crawls in the steam and water drum.
Really enjoyed watching this with the trains passing by and the Crofton Beam Engines, great video Paul
That bend around Crofton is said to be why The Great Western only built one Pacific. It jumped rails.
Thank you both for taking me along with you today and showing me this amazing adventure ! Cheers from California!
Cheers Olin.
@@pwhitewick I hate you
@@pwhitewick my channel is better
I enjoyed this one a LOT. Thanks & Happy Summer!
Beautiful! Combining you steam locomotive and you your canal passion into one building. Amazing engineering from days of old!
Fascinating. I love old boiler houses and pumps. You've also answered a question I've long pondered. One of your very best 👌
Thanks Andy, very kind.
Well done again Paul and Rebecca!
I volunteer at Claymills victorian pumping station and it's very rewarding. I've not been to Crofton yet, but will in the future. It's well worth helping out if they need volunteers :)
love the canal engineering ones. The history of engineering is awe-inspiring. Brilliant people
Thanks for a great video. I hope to be visiting this pumping station next week. Beam engine motion is almost hypnotic.
That was fascinating. Thank you. I had never really thought about where the water comes from to go into the canal ...now I know!
Another entertaining Sunday evening. 👏👏👏
Another enthralling video from the Whitewicks, that was really interesting thank you Paul and Rebecca
hello again Paul and Rebecca , cool and very interesting video , i could look and listen to this stuff all day , well done and thank you :)
Fascinating, Well done P&R!
Very interesting. Your videos are sometying to look forward to on Sunday afternoons.
Awesome, thank you!
Fascinating and inspirational. It helps one to realize the amount of work, intelligence, know-how, courage and perseverance is devoted to building the world around us. The guide was quite helpful, too.
What an absolutely beautiful part of the country. Love the canal, railway , road and old engine house sitting close together in those green fields.
Great video stayed there on a canal boat with my scouts a few years back great to see it working and the aerial shots love it
Now its time to head towards Bath and do a vid on the Claverton pumping station, which does the same job as Crofton, but in a totally different way.
Brilliant, one to add to the "Visiting" list. Thanks for the insight.
Back in my neck of the woods again. I know that place very well - grew up in the area. Great video.
I use to love taking my kids to Crofton, and the windmill on the hill.
What a great vid - good to see these Crofton Beam Engines still working after all this time 🙂🚂🚂🚂
what a fantastic video - thank you for all your time in making the video
Another great video, team, cheers!
Proper engineering, thanks for the tour! 🙏
Brilliant. I was lucky enough to have this on my running route and often marvelled at how much effort it would have taken to dig the canal.
Wow, always informative, and entertaining. Thank you. Great music choices too.
What a fascinating place - really interesting and well filmed, thanks!
Very interesting. Enjoyed the tour.
went there 30 Jul 2019 steampunk event it was quite busy lovely day out got some nice footage of the engines in steam been there quite a few times but it's long way from where I live I learnt some new things from your video so thanks Very well presented and informativeas always
So lovely to see machinery like this still in action!
Always wondered where the water in a canal comes from and this video has given me the answer. :)
Another interesting video. Thank you.
Always a pleasure.
This was really cool. Thank you so much for all the effort you both do to bring these things to us!
Thanks for explaining the workings of this wonderful old steam engine!
That was incredibly interesting thanks. Please stay safe and take care
This video deserves to go viral.
Excellent stuff!! You have a gift for simplifying the complicated, which is much appreciated. Thank you both for unmissable Sunday viewing.
Excellent video as always: thank you! Quite appropriate for me as last week, I spent some time in a narrowboat sitting on the bottom of a lock on the Grand Union because someone the previous day had left a paddle half-open and the the canal pounds had pretty much emptied. The resident ducks looked happy, though, as they could reach weed to eat that was normally inaccessible!
Thanks, that was fascinating, and not something we often think about.
My goodness we live and learn. That was so interesting.. what a fabulous vlog. Thank you.
Thank you for another interesting and enjoyable video, also thank you for the guide for explaining the process. I look forward to next week's video.
Excellent video
Saw Tom Rolt's name on that plaque at the end of the vid. He was as famous for his work for canals as he was for railways.
Very interresting and enjoyable to watch!
Great timing for this video, only yesterday I interviewed the Kennet and Avon Trust on Kennet Radio, to publicise their waterways festival in Newbury today. I was also at Crofton a few weeks ago with my film camera. Not far away is Wilton Windmill too, preserved but a separate piece of history.
Fascinating! … well done !
Another fine video! Thank you.
Been there myself quite a few years back now and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well worth a visit both on steaming and non-steaming days. Theres more of these engines out there than you think!
Fascinating! One to visit, I think!
Beautiful Crofton Pumping Station! I work at a pumping station in Darlington called Tees Cottage Pumping Station. It’s also steam powered! If your ever near Darlington and want to see it let me know! We have open days but we can also do private tours.
Great stuff again, you always find interesting stuff!!
Paul Rebecca that was outstanding blog 👏 top people 👏 love ❤ that 👏 well dun 👏
brilliant video and i enjoyed watching this one keep up the awesome work
Thanks Michael.
That was really informative. That’s what I like, there are always solutions to a problem and that’s what drives us forward 👍👍
Ahh Sunday at 5pm , cheers Paul 👍
Enjoy
Wow. Stunning. Great. Would like to see that
Just excellent, well done.
I was wondering about Catherine the other day. That's spooky. I didn't know she was working there. I think a visit to those engines is all the more in order now.
Wow fascinating. We must have cycled near there on our way to Bath. Wish we'd known about it as would have loved to visit. Sign another life now. Cheers and thanks.
I love a good steaming weekend!
Great video. The brief shot of the advert for the Murder Mystery and Hog Roast at Wilton Windmill sounds uncannily like the script for disposing of the evidence in an episode of Midsomer Murders...
Rebecca doesn't look to comfortable looking down that piston shaft. Great video as always.
I have visited, I urge everyone to go it's really interesting, thanks guys, your video bought back memories for me..
Been waiting for this and it didn’t disappoint. Thank you.
Definitely on my places to visit list.
Brilliant video guys. Very interesting. One of my favourite things to research. thanks.
absolutely superb, brilliant informative!!!
love this kind of content, used to love Fred Dibnah and his industrial history programmes.
More of this kind of content please......
think you may have a guest presenter now too, Catherine. She was great 👍
Rebecca certainly didn't look comfortable looking down the well/shaft
Maybe Rebecca could try the walkway on the Newport Transporter Bridge. It's very high up and you can see through the mesh floor as you cross. Interesting place and one of only six in the world still working but closed until next year.
Well this is a first--I had to watch this video twice because I was so distracted by your stunning tour guide Catherine.
Usually your photographic skills take my breath away, Paul! (Btw of course Rebecca's lovely too, but I know she's married lol)
LTC Rolt - A great writer and supporter of the preservation of the canal network.
Robert Aickman, similarly, but better known for his horror stories.
LTC Rolt also wrote similar stories, though sadly, not so many - One volume only - 'Sleep No More', contains some of the most disquieting stories, based on mines, railways, canals, foundries, and a car racing circuit, that you will ever read. He definitely had talent.
Rolt and Aickman had a big falling out, though, which they never really recovered from, before their deaths.
Both fascinating characters in their different ways. The first secretary for the IWA was he writer Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was married to Peter Scott at the time. She had an affair with Aickman and, later in life, went on to marry Kingsley Amis (Martin Amis was her stepson and he credits her for encouraging him). However, that barely scratches the surface of her life, which is documented in her autobiography Slipstream named, in part, for her time with the IWA and how she was often in the slipstream of events and more influential men.
Tom Rolt's second wife Sonia is also a very interesting character, and she became important in the conservation movement in her own right.
I wondered if this would be Crofton? Many years ago (mid 1980s) I spent several weekends with a work colleague who was a volunteer here. I remember cutting up the old boilers with an oxy-torch before they were replaced with retired ones from a tobacco processing factory near Bristol. Great to see things still going strong.
it’s weird seeing canals and the support infrastructure discussed and seeing trains roll by: the very things that brought them into disuse…
thankfully this key piece of transportation history is kept intact and working and being used alongside the modern equivalent
The railway put the canal out of business. After being derelict volunteers started to restore it and now it's a great leisure asset. BTW, not far from the pumping engine the canal goes in a tunnel (Bruce tunnel) and under the railway. There is no towpath so walkers ascend up steps, go under the railway, and then descend to the canal at the other end of the tunnel. Before motorised canal boats the boatmen had to haul themselves through the tunnel using a chain attached to the wall of the tunnel while the horse when over the hill.
Great video as always. You must have some great out takes too!
The Crofton beam engines were high on my list of places to visit when I lived in London, but a new job in a new country intervened - thanks for virtually fulfilling the plan. So in fact (if my geography is correct), the eastern half of the climb to the summit pound is filled naturally from Wilton Water near Great Bedwyn. There is a levels difference of 12 metres between Wilton Water and the summit pound, which is overcome using the two pumps you feature here (or electric pumps in normal time). A culvert links the reservoir to the Crofton well. Although the water can obviously flow in both directions down from the summit pound, in fact it is only needed to replenish the western half of the climb, i.e. from Bath to Crofton (plus the locks back down to the Wilton pound).
Haven't been there in an age. Fascinating to find out how it operates without actually being there.😁
I liked it when you clarified that you were Paul... Though I don't think many of us would have thought you were Rebecca! Maybe if you put on a red wig...
Don't encourage him.
I've been to Crofton several times an amazing place on a steam or not. I believe the boiler was from the swindon railway works and used to drive equipment and the famous clocking off whistle which is now only heard on the museum steam days and the bear festival but powered by a traction engine. Having moved from ear shot of the Swindon my nearest beam engine is at Minions ! Great Video Thanks Guys
Crofton Beam Engines in steam is a must see. Luckily for me, just 20 miles from my house.
Another excellent interesting video, love it.
Canals and railways, two of my favorite things. 😁
Mine too!
Thanks
Welcome