Hidden Stroud part XIV:Waller's in Stroud, c.1930

Today I invented the time machine. My work here is done.

...ok, our town's Merrywalks shopping centre is pretty below-average in terms of shops, but it has some amazing artifacts. I blipped the 1972 ceramic wall plaque in September 2012. Another arresting piece that greets the visitor arriving by lift or staircase from the car park or bus station is a real-life "horizontal steam engine" made by Waller's engineering in Stroud for a business in Ulverston, Cumbria in around 1920. It is accompanied by the photo above. The image shows life at Waller's workshop in 1930, at Phoenix Ironworks (probably at Thrupp, to the east of Stroud).

I do not know who took this original photograph, but it is reproduced in large format and mounted on the wall, adjacent to the actual steam engine. I am in awe of the depth of field. As I came up the stairs on a wet, wet day, I was struck by the photo once again, and decided to make it my blip. Plenty of people were to-ing and fro-ing, so it was difficult to get a good shot, and I could not include the steam engine without losing something of the original photo.

Step right into the workshop

As for what a horizontal steam engine might be used for, I have no idea! I did go to WHSmith to look for history magazines, but found only one, BBC history. I never expected to find a steam engine from Stroud in it, I am just getting curious about history. Anyone tried History Today?

More Hidden Stroud series links can be found on on my bio page