A crane built by the prestigious Bath-based engineering company Stothert & Pitt, and believed to be the oldest-known surviving example, has been handed over to B&NES Council.
Councillor Sarah Moore, chair of Bath & North East Somerset Council and Nina Pollard | Photo © B&NES Council
The six-ton hand-operated crane, which was built around 1864, has been restored and installed in the Newark Works Yard in Bath Quays.
The crane was gifted to Bath & North East Somerset Council by the Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust last year.
It was officially handed over during the ceremony by Nina Pollard. Her late husband, David Pollard, was the owner of Hartham Park Quarry, a historian and the founder of the trust.
The crane was used at Pictor’s Wharf near the Great Western Railway and at Clift Quarry on Box Hill, where it worked until 1974.
Councillor Sarah Moore, chair of the council, said: “I am proud to accept this gift on behalf of Bath & North East Somerset Council. Stothert & Pitt was founded in Bath in 1785, so this crane represents an important part of Bath’s industrial heritage and stands as a tribute to the many people who worked for Stothert & Pitt before it closed in 1989.
“I want to thank the Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust who donated the crane to the council for future generations to enjoy and the members of the Stothert & Pitt Crane Restoration Group who have spent years restoring the crane to its former glory.”
The restoration group has spent four years working on the crane to save it from being scrapped.
Although the original ironwork was still sound, all of the crane’s timbers had to be replaced.
Peter Dunn, a former Stothert & Pitt engineer, who led the team of volunteers, said: “It has been a pleasure to have restored the crane and reassembled it back in the site where it was built.
“It is a tribute to all the many people who worked for Stothert & Pitt over the years and helped make this important large employer in Bath ‘crane makers to the world’.”
The restoration project was funded by Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust, The Association for Industrial Archaeology, The Bristol industrial Archaeological Society, The Cotswold National Landscape, Hawker Joinery, Stephen Kerrs and Neil Garrett.
The restoration group members are Peter Dunn, Arthur Feltham, Varian Tye, Mary Sabina Stacey, Tony Wray, Paul Cooper, Nina Pollard, Mike Dodd, Stuart Burroughs and Geoff Wallis.
BAM Construction carried out the full assembly of the crane at Bath Quays under their supervision.
