Two second hand cabinets Kindly donated to us from Craven Museum.

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Fig 1 – One of the two rollers. Specifically which one of the two 1890s rollers is not able to be determined.

Fig 2 – The Thomas Green roller working at Delaney’s Quarry.

The road steam fleet of Skipton Rural District Council
by
Derek Rayner
Vice Chairman of the Road Roller Association and President of the Leeds and District Traction Engine Club

Road maintenance in the area surrounding Skipton was in the hands of Skipton Rural District Council until April 1930 at which time government legislation transferred the responsibilities to the West Riding County Council. The RDC’s depot was at Gargrave.

Over time, the Rural District Council owned nine steam rollers, all purchased new, plus two road steam engines and a Yorkshire steam wagon; this latter having been manufactured in July 1915 by the Yorkshire Patent Steam Wagon Company of Pepper Road, Leeds.

The first steam roller obtained by the Rural District Council was inevitably one supplied by Aveling & Porter of Rochester, Kent. This was in October 1896. Aveling’s were the UK’s most prolific steam roller manufacturer, they having made more steam rollers than all the other British makers put together. It was Royalty Number (works number) 3791 and was a 10-ton overhead valve compound roller weighing probably around 12-tons in working order. According to the presently available records, courtesy of the Road Locomotive Society, this was followed a couple of years later by another identical roller, Aveling No 4258, in December 1898.

Later steam rollers were purchased from Charles Burrell & Sons of Thetford (No 2269 of March 1900) and then Thomas Green’s of North Street, Leeds, (No 1473 of January 1903). These were followed by two more Avelings, Nos 7586 of January 1912 and 8481 three years later in January 1915.

The final three rollers were one from John Fowler’s of Leathley Road, Hunslet, Leeds – No 15590 of April 1921 and two by Wallis & Steevens of Basingstoke, Hampshire – their ‘Advance’ models – Nos 7807 of September 1924 and 7910 in February 1927.

The road engines were both obtained second-hand, a traction engine by 1921, having been built in Leeds at the Midland Engine Works of J & H McLaren on Jack Lane, Hunslet, in 1897 – this being No 641. The other was a steam tractor which came from Clayton & Shuttleworth of Lincoln in December 1927 – No 48858. It’s likely that these were used for hauling roadstone to the site of works relating to road repairs where the crushed stone would have been rolled in by a steam roller. This latter machine was still owned in 1951.

The initial two Aveling rollers were so similar in looks and specification that it would have probably been impossible to tell them apart without looking at the brass Royalty Plate on the cylinder where the Royalty Number is engraved – so that which is pictured in Fig 1 – is one of these two rollers. Specifically which one of the two 1890s rollers is not able to be determined.

Fig 2 shows the Thomas Green roller working at Delaney’s Quarry, close to Horton in Ribblesdale and driving a stonecrusher by means of a leather belt from its flywheel. It was presumably on hire to the quarry owners at the time or it was reducing the size of quarried stone to manageable proportions for the council’s later road making purposes elsewhere.

One interesting coincidence here in regards to this article is that there is a Skipton RDC owner’s plate which still survives – Fig 4  from Aveling & Porter 8-ton steam roller No 7586. This machine was sold out of council service at an unknown date to contractor Charles William Sykes of Netherton near Huddersfield. In 1942, this firm’s threshing business passed to Joshua Rodgers of nearby South Crosland and although the roller itself was later purchased from Sykes by the roller hire firm of Hampshire Brothers of Ravensthorpe, near Dewsbury, the plate was acquired by Rodgers and re-used by being polished and engraved on the reverse with his name and Fleet No 4. Fig 5

This plate is now fitted to the author’s 1915 Aveling & Porter steam roller No 8506 White Rose, Fig 3 which was purchased from Joshua Rodgers for preservation by him and two colleagues in 1964 and which is still owned by him.

The only surviving steam vehicle once owned by Skipton Rural District Council is the 8-ton Aveling & Porter roller No 7586 which is now in preservation in Northamptonshire.

It should not be forgotten, however, that Skipton Urban District Council was an entity in its own right. Prior to 1895, this was Skipton Local Board and this organisation purchased its own steam roller –  Aveling & Porter, No 3479 – new in December 1894. It is not known whether the dates of 1895 and December 1894 in respect of the UDC and the purchase of the RDC’s first steam roller in  October 1896 are significant or not.

Aveling No 3479 worked for the UDC until 1921 when it was replaced by a new Fowler steam roller, No 15813, in April of that year.  This one was eventually sold (undated) to the same Joshua Rodgers as noted above. The other steam roller owned by Skipton UDC was Wallis & Steevens ‘Advance’ type No 7869 which was new to them in July 1926. Both these two rollers are still in existence, the Fowler being near Stroud in Gloucestershire, whereas the Wallis is in Lincolnshire.

Fig 3 – The author’s 1915 Aveling roller No 8506 White Rose. Derek Rayner

Fig 4 – The original Aveling & Porter-produced owner’s plate as supplied to Skipton Rural District Council. Derek Rayner

Fig 5 – The Rodger’s name and Fleet Number on the polished and engraved reverse of the original Skipton RDC plate – still in use and carried on an Aveling roller. Derek Rayner

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HIS LIFE

Halliwell Sutcliffe was born at Thackley, Bradford on the 25th of April 1870 at the house of a relative, the family home at that time being Lees House, near Crossroads on the outskirts of Haworth. He was the son of John Sutcliffe, the local schoolmaster, and in 1873, aged three, moved with the faOnmily to the old schoolhouse by the church at Bingley on his father’s appointment as headmaster of Bingley Grammar School. The father held this post until his retirement in 1901 and his son was educated at this school.

In 1889 he took an exhibition to King’s College, Cambridge, where he enjoyed the intellectual atmosphere, obtaining a BA degree in mathematics. On leaving Cambridge in 1893, he spent some time in teaching but soon decided it was not the career he wanted.

He then worked in London as a tutor or coach and lived precariously by also writing freelance articles, sketches and poems for various magazines and papers such as Vanity Fair, Westminster Gazette and the Windsor Magazine. His real intentions from the first, however, were to make a career in literary work. He had written short sketches and articles about the moors, life and scenery about him, even before going to Cambridge, and some of these had appeared in local Yorkshire newspapers.

His first two books, possibly written while he was in London, were not a success. In the end the call of the North was too strong and he left London and returned to Bingley. The next book “The Eleventh Commandment”, published in 1896, enjoyed some popularity – and notoriety – and this was followed by the very successful “A Man of the Moors”, “Ricroft of Withens” and “Shameless Wayne”. His career as an author was now established, with new books appearing regularly thereafter.

When his father retired, the family moved a short distance to Castlefields House, Crossflats, near Bingley, where the garden finds portrayal in two very charming and popular novels “A Bachelor in Arcady” and “A Benedick in Arcady”.

 In 1904 he was married at St. Stephen’s Church, East Twickenham to Miss Mabel Cottrell, who became a devoted wife, throwing herself wholeheartedly into the new life of a countrywoman. They first lived at the Manor House, Embsay near Skipton, for some eighteen months until he purchased Troutbeck at Linton, a beautiful pre-Elizabethan house formerly used as a grange by the monks of Fountains Abbey. At that time it was named White Abbey and the Author reverted to the old name. He lived there for the rest of his life.

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