Leiston Long Shop Museum

Today we were on another U3A Bury St. Edmunds day trip, this time to the Long Shop Museum in Leiston and the Red House in Aldeburgh, former home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, Our first stop was the Long Shop Museum.

This was the what the trailer for the trip said.

"The Long Shop Museum at Leiston was founded in 1984. It is housed in a cluster of historic
buildings which are survivors of the original 19th century works site of Richard Garrett and
Sons. The Garretts were world-famous manufacturers of steam engines and other agricultural
machinery and the museum has important collections relating to farming machinery, steam
traction, tools and commercial and domestic products that were made by the works during its
200 year history. The Long Shop itself – a prototype for assembly line production long before
Henry Ford – is unique and Grade II listed. The museum also holds significant collections
relating to the Garrett family including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first women doctor in
England. An introductory talk and tea/coffee and biscuits on arrival is included."

Here are a few of my photos at the Long Shop Museum.

We were given an introductory talk by Fraser Hales, the director of the museum, who made us most welcome and then went to explore the site by ourselves.

We were given maps to help us find our way around the site.

The start of the story was metalworking. Richard Garrett I moved from Woodbridge to Leiston in 1778 to run a forge with William Cracey. They made manual farm tools such as sickles, scythes, seed drills and chaff-cutters. Here are a couple of sickles.

Cracey died in 1783 and Richard bought the freehold. He retired in 1805 to become a farmer and his son, also called Richard, took over the works.

Here is a timeline for the Garretts.

Richard Garrett III oversaw a great expansion of the works over the period 1826-1866 and in 1848 started producing portable steam engines. By 1851 it employed 300 men, and all of them visited the Great Exhibition of 1851. As the museum website explains... "The Great Exhibition was a magnificent event held in the Crystal Palace in London in 1851. Richard Garrett III had a major stand and was awarded the Great Medal – the highest prize – for his exhibits. There, Richard Garrett was exposed to the ideas being developed in the USA to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process. It has been suggested that he was especially impressed by the ideas of Samuel Colt, the gun manufacturer, who employed workers each of whom he instructed in a specific task in gun manufacture. The gun being made would pass from worker to worker until it was complete. Richard Garrett recognized that the same principle could be applied to the mass manufacture of larger machinery. The portable steam engine was an ideal product but would need a special building. The Long Shop was started in 1852 and opened for production in 1853."

Not built here, but bought by Frank Garrett in 1901 of £351, this is Queen Victoria, a Merryweather Steam Fire pump.

I was impressed the variety of things that were produced over time as the business evolved.

But it was agricultural machinery that the business was most famous for. Here is Princess Marina, a steam tractor.

The mammoth threshing machine.

A stationary steam engine.

This is the view along the Long Shop.

I liked the collection of machine tools here. It reminded me of working at British Gas' Engineering Research Station in the 1980s, which had its own machine shop floor.

Upstairs there was an exhibit about Zeppelin L48 which was shot down and crashed at nearby Theberton in June 1917. The aircraft that attacked it included a FE.2b biplane that was manufactured here.

This is a propeller from a FE.2b

The view from the stairs.

Outside in a building at the end of the Parade Yard was the Sirapite, a 1906 Aveling and Porter loco that was used to move goods to and from the Garrett works until her retirement in 1962.

Next to it is Consuella Allen, a 10 ton 'light' steam road roller.

Back in the Long Shop... there are things you can have a try at down the middle.

Here are some sand boxes. The works cast their own metal parts.

This is The Joker steam tractor. As Fraser explained it was too heavy and too expensive and only 8 of these Suffolk Punch tractors were built.

A restoration project is under way to rebuild this 1937 McLaughlin Buick Special Model 4419. It was bought by the works for transporting clients to and from the works. It's last MoT is dated 1966.

The works had its own well, which also supplied water to the town. It is remarkably deep - 487 feet and took two years to dig in 1851. Here is a schematic showing the geology of what was dug through.

I liked the bicycle.

Back in the Long Shop I had a go at this. I rolled the number 7 and it was quite tricky to get the ball through the hole, but I managed it.

This poster is a great summary of the machinery built for the farming community in the works over the 200 years of its history.

As the website says... "Business at the Works remained healthy in the 1970s. It was producing dry cleaning machines as well as continuing the production for The S&S Machine Company and the Elliott’s shaper output However, its parent company, Beyer-Peacock, struggled. After it was taken over in 1976, the Works experienced changes in ownership. At first, things looked promising and, in 1977, the second phase of plans for Colonial House on the Top Works was completed. In 1978, Garretts proudly celebrated its 200th anniversary. But, in 1980, the parent company collapsed. This forced an abrupt end to Richard Garrett Engineering Works."

The museum was fascinating and it's well worth a visit. It is also a poignant reminder of the days when we had a thriving manufacturing industry in the UK.

Thank-you Pat for organising another great visit. You can see more of my photos here on Flickr.