Hick Hargreaves & Co. Ltd.

This is a typical cross compound mill engine that was built well into the 20th Century, being used to drive cotton, woollen and jute mills. this engine is being shop assembled to ensure that all parts fit together properly and to make any preliminary adjustments, the parts would then be marked before the engine was dismantled each componant being given a protective coating of heavy lubricating oil or red lead, bearing journals would be carefully wrapped in sackcloth, and heavy timber packing would be attached to the frames, bedplates and cylinders etc to give support as well as preventing damage during the journey to its final destination. the low pressure cylinder is on the left, with the high pressure cylinder on the right.

this photograph gives a very good impression of the atmosphere inside a large heavy engineering workshop, during my apprenticeship in the ship repair yards of Harland & Wolff in London I worked in very similar workshops to this.