Raising the bar for a historic mill engine

An important mill engine from the collection has been given a new lease of life by the Northern Mill Engine Society and a new home at Bolton Steam Museum

The barring engine with a shiny new coat of paint at its new home in the Bolton Steam Museum The engine was transferred in September 2007 to the Northern Mill Engine Society, who display their collection of mill engines at Bolton Steam Museum.

So what’s a barring engine?

The flywheels of mill engines needed to be turned to a suitable position for starting or for maintenance purposes. On smaller engines, the flywheel was ‘barred’ over with a lever by hand. For larger engines, a small barring engine was often fitted, to do the job where muscle power failed.

Why was it transferred?

Bolton Steam Museum contains the largest collections of working steam engines in the country, so could offer a better context in which to display the engine then that which Bolton Museum could provide.

The museum is also situated about 100 yards from where the engine was originally installed on the Atlas Mills site in Bolton, so the engine is almost back in its original setting, further enhancing its historical significance. The Northern Mill Engine Society could also provide the expertise to overhaul and restore the engine, and display it in working condition powered by steam.

As you can see, the dedicated team at Bolton Steam Museum have lovingly restored the engine to its former glory.

The Musgrave barring engine as it looked before it was transferred to the Northern Mill Engine Society

More information

For more information on the Northern Mill Engine Society and Bolton Steam Museum, visit the society’s website at www.nmes.org

For more information on collections disposal, see Bolton Museum’s Acquisitions and Disposals policy on the website.

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