Hollycombe Steam Collection

The Hollycombe Steam Collection is a collection of steam-powered vehicles, amusement rides, and attractions based near Liphook in Hampshire, Southeast England. The collection includes fairground rides, a display farm, two railways, and the woodland gardens.

Part of the Fairground viewed from the top of the big wheel

History

The collection dates to the late 1940s when Commander John Baldock decided to preserve some steam traction engines that were rapidly disappearing from British life. By the early 1960s, he had acquired a significant collection of road vehicles and began collecting fairground rides. In the late 1960s, he extended his interests again into preserving railway equipment.

Baldock's collection was opened to the public and became a major Hampshire tourist attraction. Over time the collection grew so large it became impossible for one person to maintain, and by 1984 Baldock decided he would have to close the operation.

A society was formed by volunteers to operate the collection. This was successful and the collection continued to expand. At the beginning of 1999, a charitable trust took over most of the collection and its operation, funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

Attractions

Edwardian Fairground
The Razzle Dazzle

The Edwardian Fairground is a complete steam fair comprising rides originating from the 1870s and later. The rides include a Tidman three-abreast Golden Gallopers roundabout, a single steam yacht, and a razzle dazzle (a grand aerial novelty ride with a rotating and tilting movement). S. Fields Steam Circus was built between 1868 and 1872 and is the oldest surviving mechanically propelled fairground device. The fairground also has a set of steam swings, a set of Walker Chair-o-Planes, a big wheel, and a Bioscope show (an early travelling cinema). The rides are constructed mainly of wood and where appropriate are powered by steam engines. There are rides for all ages and the atmosphere is completed with a number of fairground organs and a range of side stalls.

Current rides and attractions:

  • Steam Yacht (one of two steam yachts in the UK, built in 1911)
  • Razzle Dazzle (the first-ever ride with two movements [tilting and rotating], built in 1906 by Howcroft Carriage and Wagon Works)
  • Gallopers (three-abreast steam gallopers, built in 1912 by Tidman of Norwich, England)
  • Mr. Field's Steam Circus (Built in the late 1870s by Savage of King's Lynn, England, it is the world's oldest-surviving mechanically driven fairground ride)
  • Steam Swings (a ride consisting of six boats driven by an overhead line shaft from a 1901 Brown and May portable engine)
  • Big Wheel (50-foot [15 m] high, built by Hayes Fabrications)
  • Steam Chair-O-Planes (once a set of gallopers, destroyed in the war. Now a set of chair-o-planes built in 1910 by Walker's)
  • BioScope (the Bioscope is typical of the travelling shows which brought the very first films to the public)
  • Haunted House (built by Orton and Spooner around 1915; back in service for 2017)
  • Austin Car ride (built by Supercar in 1948)
  • Juvenile Roundabout (built by Orton and Spooner in 1930, it spent its working life at Chessington Zoo in Surrey until purchased by Hollycombe in 1985)
  • Children's Swing Boats (built in 1990)
  • Juvenile Chair-O-Planes

Farm

The farm includes a wide range of vintage steam-powered farm equipment including ploughing engines, a threshing machine, a baler, and a stationary steam engine driving small machinery through a line shaft.

The sawmill is used to cut much of the wood used on-site and is powered by a large semi-portable Robey steam engine. Close by is the engine from the paddle steamer Caledonia.

Railways

There are two railways: narrow gauge and miniature. A third standard gauge line formerly operating but is now abandoned. (Further detail below.)

Woodland Gardens

John Clarke Hawkshaw planted over a million trees on the Hollycombe estate from the 1880s, so it is a Victorian garden in origin. Planting continued into the 20th century and then, after a long pause before and after the war years, Clarke's son Oliver planted the one-quarter-mile-long (400 m) Azalea Walk in the mid-1920s, with the new Mollis hybrids from Knaphill. Baldock continued to manage and develop the gardens from the 1950s.[1]

Narrow-gauge railway
Jerry M running at Dinorwig before preservation at Hollycombe
Narrow-gauge station at Hollycombe

The narrow-gauge railway at Hollycombe started in 1967 using equipment purchased from the Dinorwic slate quarry in north Wales. The quarry had abandoned its extensive internal rail system and Baldock acquired the steam locomotive Jerry M along with a quantity of track and several wagons. Construction started in 1968 and reached the sandstone quarry by 1971. The 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge line was later extended to include a loop, which brought the track length to its present 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km). The second steam locomotive, Caledonia, was purchased in 1968.

Four of the five passenger coaches were bought from the Ramsgate Cliff Railway when it closed; the fifth coach was built at Hollycombe to the same design.

Locomotives
Name Builder Type Date Works number Notes
Jerry M Hunslet 0-4-0ST 1895 638 Ex-Dinorwic Quarry. Originally named Vaenol, later renamed Jerry M after a successful racehorse belonging to the quarry owners. In service.
Caledonia Barclay 0-4-0WT 1931 1995 Ex-Burnhope Reservoir railway, later at Dinorwic Quarry where it was named No. 70. Undergoing overhaul, boiler at the Severn Valley Railway.
Coco Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0WT 1927 3136 In Service
Jack Ruston Hornsby 4wDM 1939 203016 Currently out of service
Sir Dudley Ruston Hornsby 4wDM 1941 210961 Currently out of service
Lizzie Ruhrthaler 4wDH In service
G.I.Joe Plymouth 4wDM 1947 4832 In service
M.O.D.

NG53

 Andrew Barclay and Sons Co Ltd 4wDH 1988 764 In Service

Miniature railway

The miniature railway at Hollycombe is 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge.

Route

The miniature railway starts at the station by the saw mill and climbs past crossing gates and through a cutting. It reaches the top and bends to the left. The fairground is then on the left and the woodland gardens is on the right. It then heads into another cutting before a 360-degree loop onto an embankment. It runs parallel with a five-inch gauge line into the two-platform station.

Locomotives
  • Bob 0-4-2 Tinkerbell class
  • Pauline 0-4-0 Romulus class

Standard-gauge railway
Hawthorn-Leslie 0-4-0ST Commander B

The standard-gauge (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)) railway ran for 1⁄3 mile (540 m) between the sawmill and the farm, passing the fairground along the way. The railway had one steam locomotive:

  • Commander B, 1899-built Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST, named after the collection's founder, Commander Baldock. The engine originally was purchased by the Admiralty for use in Chatham Dockyard, and was brought to Hollycombe for restoration in 1985, several years after withdrawal from the docks. Currently stored in the open on tracks of the abandoned standard gauge line, out of use and in deteriorating condition, due to unaffordable heavy overhaul and boiler repairs.

Steam engines

The collection has over 30 different steam engines of various types.[2] Some engines are not on display, since engines which in some cases are 100 years old require regular maintenance to stay in service.

Traction engines

Hollycombe has a large collection of traction engines, some of which are used on open days either to plough a field, work a threshing machine, give rides or work a fairground ride.

Showman's engines
Emperor showman's engine driving a dynamo

The showman's engines are used to power the fairground rides.

  • Burrell No. 1876 "Emperor" built in 1895. The oldest showman's engine in the world. Out of service.
  • Garrett No. 33348 "Leiston Town" built in 1918. Out of Service

Steam tractors

The light steam tractors (a small design of traction engine) are used for giving rides.

  • Burrell gold medal tractor No. Two "Sunset" built in 1919. Out of traffic awaiting a major overhaul.
  • Mann Steam Tractor No. 1260 built in 1917. Out of traffic awaiting a major overhaul.

Agricultural engines
Fowler Ploughing Engine Prince at work

These engines are used for ploughing or driving a threshing machine.

  • Beam engine, circa 1840, a working rotational beam engine of unknown make restored over a six-year period and supplemented by a waterwheel-powered shaft.
  • John Allen of Oxford. ploughing engine No. 67 built in 1913. Out of service.
  • John Fowler & Co. ploughing engine No. 14383 "Prince" of 1917. Out of service.

Portable engines
Portable engines Eileen and Big John

This type of engine was used for driving agricultural machinery.

  • Brown & May – engine No. 6691 of 1901 (Drives shaft on the steam swings). Operational.
  • Clayton & Shuttleworth – engines No. 44140 of 1911 "Olive" (drives big wheel) and No. 50010 "Eileen" of 1926. "Olive" operational, "Eileen" operational.
  • Robey & Co. – semi-portable engine No. 33810 of 1915 (drives saw mill). Undergoing major overhaul.
  • Ruston, Proctor and Company – engine No. 30656 "Big John" of 1906. Operational.

Road rollers

Centre and organ engines
  • The museum has a number of these rare compact portable engines that powered fairground rides and organs.
  • M. Savage & Co – six examples
  • Tidman – four examples
  • Walkers – one example

See also

References
  • Thomas, Cliff (2002). The Narrow Gauge in Britain & Ireland. Atlantic Publishers. ISBN 1-902827-05-8.
  • "Official website". Archived from the original on 29 September 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2006.
  1. "Woodland Gardens". www.hollycombe.co.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  2. Old Glory No. 229 List of Engines in Museums February, 2009

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