The Travels of the Pentrich Engine

Williams, Cliff and Grudgings, Steve, The Travels of the Pentrich Engine, Transactions of the 2nd International Early Engines Conference, Volume 1, IEEC & ISSES, 2021 [ISBN: 9781872986241], pp.77-100

https://doi.org/10.54267/IEEC2-1-04

The Newcomen-type pumping engine at Pentrich Colliery, Derbyshire was installed in 1791 and was one of the very last such machines to work in the UK, being replaced by electric pumps in 1915. The engine was moved to Staveley Lower Ground Colliery in 1819, returning to Pentrich twenty years later. The Science Museum were aware of the importance of the engine by the 1870s and had started negotiations with Mr Charles Maxted Haslam, the colliery owner, for its acquisition prior to the outbreak of the First World War. The Museum’s purchase of the engine was finalised late in 1919 and it was dismantled and re-erected on the ground floor of the newly constructed Science Museum building in Kensington in 1920.

For access see Volume 1 of the Transactions of the 2nd International Early Engines Conference