Bancroft Mill Engine Trust
Bancroft Mill Engine Trust runs a Museum of the same name at Barnoldswick in Pendle Borough. The former cotton mill was demolished in 1978 but the engine, boilers and their buildings were saved from demolition. It is staffed by volunteers, some of whom have done so for over 30 years, the youngest volunteer/member is nine years of age and the eldest is nearly ninety.
The site is open to visitors on Saturdays throughout the year except around Christmas. Saturday entry is free of charge although a modest donation towards running costs is always appreciated, it is very unlikely that the engine will run on Saturdays.
The original engine (over 90 years old) is steamed for visitors on selected Sundays between March and December, see here or the website for details. A Cornish boiler provides the steam and there is a second engine, over a 100 years old, being rebuilt in a specially adapted building. You can linger in the cafeteria or souvenir shop whilst many steaming days have other forms of entertainment during the afternoons.
Continuing the tradition of weaving at Bancroft there is one Lancashire loom that is operated when a weaver is available. It makes high quality tea towels that are sold in the shop. There is a charge for entry on steaming days.
Weaving demonstrations, free parking, cafeteria and shop.
guided tours start at 12:00noon and 2:00pm
A little History :
Bancroft Mill was opened for business in 1920 and continued until mid 1978 weaving good quality cotton cloths, it wove 200,000 yards of cloth a week for long periods when orders were flowing. After the Nutter family sold the business the mill continued in other hands until 1978 when it was closed, the few remaining orders were transferred to another company and the site designated for housing.
A group of local people formed a group to try to save the engine and boilers and after many struggles were successful, the Trust came into being and started work soon after. Vandals and metal thieves had taken their toll of the buildings and machinery, brasswork stolen from the engine was recovered locally and the brasswork for the Cornish boiler replaced from individual parts sourced throughout the country.
The engine was run for the first time under the Trust in 1982. Since then it has been steamed 13 or 14 times per year and membership has grown from a handful to a group spread from the West Country to Scotland and coast to coast.
Notable amongst the founders were Newton Pickles, Walter Fisher and Les Say. Newton Pickles ran the Barnoldswick millwrights, Harry Brown and Pickles for many years and is also kindly remembered for making a clock for Barnoldswick Church. Walter Fisher was a co-director of Brown and Pickles located in Wellhouse Mill. It had serviced the engine throughout virtually the whole of its life up to closure. Les Say was the General Manager at Rolls Royce's factories in Barnoldswick and based at Bankfield Shed having been a fully indentured apprentice at the company's works in Derby before WW2. It is coincidental that James Nutter had 800 looms running in Bankfield Shed up to 1920.
