Engineering in Hardwick
Elijah Deamer & Son
According to Hardwick Old and New,
this company was based on St Neots Road, where
Weatherheads
is now.
Mr Deamer owned a steam traction engine which he hired out for ploughing.
According this reference,
from 1925 the company owned a 7HP steam traction engine, number 13079, manufactured in
1906 by Davey Paxman & Co. of Colchester, Essex and originally owned by
James W. Ridgway, Sharpenhoe, Beds.
Lion Engineering Co.
In 1971, this Hardwick-based company published a book by H.R. Plastow:
The building and running of Steam Traction Engine and Roller Models.
It does not exist in Hardwick today and there is no evidence of any connection with
Elijah Deamer, or with the present day Lion Engineering Services of Bedford.
According to Philip Ibbotson, the Frontenac Society of Model Engineers (Canada) has
a set of drawings for a 3" scale (1//4 full size) Burrell 6nhp
traction engine; Burrell traction engines were built in Thetford, Norfolk.
These drawings were produced by the Lion Engineering Company, Hardwick,
Cambs. The various sheets are dated 1959 and 1960, drawn by "G.P." and
checked by "H.P." The latter was presumably the same person who wrote the book.
Chris Turner notes:
I do recall the name Plastow and I think there was a small workshop at the
back of the Limes Estate, which is long gone and replaced with new houses. I
don't think they were a local family, having moved here in the late
50s/early 60s and then moved away. I seem to recall my father pointing out a
model steam engine built by them and running at the seaside on the Norfolk
or Suffolk coast years ago. Perhaps its still running somewhere now.
If anyone has further information, please contact me.
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