Visitors to the Bolton Steam Museum today may assume that these engines have been removed, intact and fully functional, from the mills where they once stood, to be displayed on the exhibition hall floor. Nothing could be further from the truth. They have been hard won, thanks to the dogged determination of the members of the Northern Mill Engine Society. Many have been extracted on very tight schedules, often under terrible conditions from mills that were slated for demolition. Some of them have taken years to repair and re-assemble. Today the steam engines work as well as they did when they were installed in the mills, gleaming, well-oiled and well-maintained. Visitors to the museum will see decades of dedicated work.
The Original Idea
In 1966, a group of far-sighted individuals held a meeting at the Queen Anne Hotel in Heywood. They had come to the realisation that many textile steam engines had been scrapped in the last couple of decades, as electricity was increasingly being used to run mill machinery. The group concluded that if no one took action, these fantastic creations would be lost to history. These engines had made Lancashire the once thriving industrial giant it had been, supplying half the world with cotton cloth spun and woven in its mills.
After its formation, the society acquired the use of the engine house of Atlas No.3 mill in Bolton with the intention to turn it into an exhibition space for textile engines. The site off Chorley Old Road had originally been established by the Musgrave Spinning Company in 1864, in time expanding into a four mill site. Spinning stopped in the 1960s and the buildings were then used by a range of other industries. In 1969, the BBC Chronicle programme ran a competition to publicise Industrial Archaeology, and the Bolton Steam Museum won, which brought a huge amount of publicity and some donations.
The first mill engine the society acquired was a Musgrave ‘Non-Dead Centre’ vertical engine from A & J Hoyle, Park Street Mill in Radcliffe, now the only one of its kind in the world. Room in the exhibition hall was limited though, so a second strategy was to try to preserve the engines in their original engine houses.
Successes and Failures
The society managed a successful rescue of a J Barrowclough Ltd Engine from Redfern’s Glassworks in Barnsley. A Twin Beam engine from Crossfield Mill at Wardle took 9 months to remove. A Pollitt & Wigzell 3 Rod Tandem Compound Engine from Quarmby & Sykes, Meltham, Yorkshire was removed with only one inch clearance through the engine house door. The Wasp Mill engine at Wardle could not fit through the door of the museum, so the society removed a large window so that engine pieces could be put through the opening.
There were failures too in those early years. A Cross Compound Engine at Bradshaw Bleach Works could not be removed in time before a mill was demolished and had to be abandoned. A similar fate occurred with a Courtaulds Engine at Magnet Mill, Chadderton. Another Courtaulds Engine at Dee Mill, Shaw, had been restored by the society back to steaming capacity. Four years of open days to the public ensued, but when the mill closed the site was put up for auction. Despite the engine and its house being scheduled, vandalism and theft on the derelict site left the engine house in a poor state. Eventually, scheduling was withdrawn and both engine house and engine were demolished.
And Some in Between…
The Fern Mill Engine in Shaw was found not to be in working order when the society first came into contact with it, but was nevertheless deemed worthy of saving. In bitingly cold conditions over five months the society dismantled it, taking out the last part from the mill just one day before the demolition deadline. The task of rebuilding it proved too large, so it was sold on and by a circuitous route via a number of owners it is now at the Ellenroad Steam Museum in Newhey, Rochdale. Here it is on display outside, awaiting assembly. (For more on the Ellenroad Steam Museum see our page here. To find out more about Fern Mill see our page on the Beal Vale History Walk here.)
Wigan Council approached the society to restore a Courtaulds Engine at Trencherfield Mill, which was still in its engine house. The council was developing the derelict site into Wigan Pier with an industrial museum within the mill. The society did an excellent job at bringing the engine back into working order. Sadly though, the museum closed and the mill was converted to apartments. The engine is still intact, but now only runs occasionally (see the Wigan Council website for the current state of affairs here).
The First Museum at Bolton
Work in the exhibition hall was restricted as whenever an engine rescue project was on, labour was diverted to that. Three early acquisitions were displayed in the hall at the grand opening of the museum in 1983. These were the 1840 Twin Beam Engine from Crossfield Mill, Wardle which had powered around 40 looms (pictured above), the 1893 Non Dead Centre Engine from A & J Hoyle Ltd, Park Street Mill, Radcliffe which ran 100 looms (also pictured above) and the 1902 Tandem Compound Engine from Wasp Mill, Wardle which could power 1000 looms.
However, there were soon clouds on the horizon. The surrounding buildings of Atlas Mills were deteriorating. A proposal to turn the site into a business park was floated, with the proviso that the museum could remain. This did not come to pass though, as there were lots of other vacant business premises available in the Bolton area. Instead, the whole area was sold and the buildings scheduled to be demolished and the site redeveloped. Fortunately, the new owners, Morrisons Supermarkets, wanted to keep the museum running, but the society could not remain in their building. They would have to move all their engines and equipment out of the exhibition hall to a large warehouse on the far side of the site, just seven years after the initial opening. The society took the pragmatic view that their new home would be much larger, meaning extensive floor space to show many more engines. Despite Bolton Council objecting to the redevelopment, it was passed by the Secretary of State at Westminster.
Two hundred tons of machinery and equipment was moved to the new exhibition hall. This was originally an 1800s warehouse, used to store cotton bales and equipped with a crane in each of its two bays. Morrisons paid for a new roof, repointed the walls, installed new utility services, laid large concrete foundations and dug pits for the engines. By November 1992 the society moved in, but it would be several years before their previously displayed engines could be reassembled and were ready to run again. This extra space did mean that some of the mill engines which had never been shown to the public before and had been in storage for 20 years could now be reconstructed and put on display.
The society’s hunt for engines continued. A truly huge 1914 engine from Hardman and Ingham’s Diamond Ropeworks in Royton was one of their targets (pictured below). Despite the engine being moved to a recycling yard in Littleborough, the society tracked it down and bought it. The parts had been badly damaged, but the group was able to save the 33 ton engine, build it a new concrete base and restore it in just four years after its initial scrapping.
Today there are over 30 steam engines on display. They are all different, and all fascinating. Some can be run off electricity, but on a steam day many can be seen working powered as they were intended, and they really ‘come to life’. The display interpretation for each one is very clear, giving a full history of who made it, where it was employed and details of what is particularly interesting about it.
A small machine of note is Fred Dibnah’s Bennis ‘Westminster’ engine. Fred, the local Bolton steeplejack and well known television presenter, was at one time the president of the Northern Mill Engine Society. Fittingly, his sons have loaned his engine that he used to drive his steam workshop in his garden. He used to power many of his metal and wood-working machines by steam.
A delightful section of the museum features a multitude of toy steam engines, all of which are in working order and running off steam piped to them from a central supply. There are also displays and examples of other related machinery such as speed recorders, steam monitors and water monitors – all essential in the safe and efficient working life of a textile engine. In addition, the museum has a second hand bookshop with titles on a wide range of subjects, and a cafe.
Site visited by A. and S. Bowden 2023
Access
Bolton Steam Museum is open every Wednesday and Sunday. Admission is free and parking is free. Some of the machines can be seen in operation on these days, driven by electricity. There are also ‘steam weekends’ when the engines can be seen operating under full steam. For those dates, and lots more information on the Bolton Steam Museum and Northern Mill Engine Society see their website here.
Nearby
Fred Dibnah Stature and Corliss Steam Engine
References
The Bolton Steam Museum: 50 years work of the Northern Mill Engine Society (2019) Available in the museum
Bolton Steam Museum: Souvenir Museum Guide (2019) Available in the museum
On site interpretation
wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Museums-archives/Trencherfield-Mill-Engine.aspx
Lancashire Past 
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