Miller's Trail Road Run
April  2001

by Michael Pumfrey

Since 1998 The Friends of Bardwell Windmill have been raising money to repair the windmill, which lost its sails during the 1987 Hurricane. It was decided to hold a Steam Road Run in order to complete the £92,000 needed to put it back into operation.

12 steam engines took part in the run, as well as Duncan Marston's Ransomes portable "Little Lucy" milling flour, and two models at Bardwell. Engines in the run were as follows:
Ruston Hornsby Agricultural "Oliver" owned by the Wheeler  family,
Aveling & Porter Roller "Emma" owned by Martin Fagg,
Aveling & Porter Roller "Josephine" owned by Simon and Adrian Fox,
Aveling & Porter Tractor "Clementine" owned by Peter Williams,
Burrell Gold Medal Showman's Tractor "Peter Pan" owned by Simon Webb,
Burrell Gold Medal Tractor "The Wee Engine" owned by the Hawkins family,
Burrell Road Loco "Duke of Kent" owned by Keith Honour,
Foden Waggon owned by Duncan Marston,
Fowell Traction Engine "Cromwell" owned by David Miller,
Fowler Road Loco "Sir Douglas" owned by Philp's of Castle Hedingham,
Marshall Traction Engine owned by Terry Petty,
And the Ransomes Traction Engine owned by Richard Hemington.

I took part in the run as crew, with my brother, Chris, for Keith Honour on the "Duke of Kent".

Things got off to a good start when Chris decided the four wheeled trailer we were towing on the run was too tall on the lowloader, he got round that by cutting it in half with a jigsaw! Plenty of woodscrews soon put it right again.

Saturday morning dawned wet and soggy after almost constant rain the night before, it continued to rain while we were getting steam up, so we decided not to clean the brass! The weather cleared up slightly, and after we'd established  which coal was actually intended for us, and put back the bags that we pinched from Mr Hemington's trailer, we got under way.

Until we got to School Lane in Bardwell that was. While we were waiting in the road for water, a bright spark in a Landrover and trailer decided to come between the hedge and us the other side of the road. Well he couldn't, could he. He got his bull-bar wrapped round the back wheel of the engine, scratching the paint, and he had to back up and turn round.

So we were finally under way, and proceeded to Pakenham Windmill without mishap, apart from getting a bit cold and damp.

At Pakenham, the engines assembled in the mill yard. Some of the smaller engines also called at Pakenham watermill. We had a look round the windmill and ate our packed lunches. While we were there, Pat Freeman asked if I'd do a write-up for the website....and I must have said yes, 'cos here it is...

After we left the mill, taking care to avoid the sails as we went out of the gate, we followed the road to Pakenham village for our first pub stop. Then on to Stanton, to the Cock, for another stop. We were then informed that the police were knocking off in about 15 mins (it wasn't exactly a scheduled stop!) so we headed back to Bardwell.

Terry Petty's 6nhp Marshall, John Miles is steering.

We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon lined up outside the windmill. A lot of interested  members of the public had a look round the engines and mill.

In the evening there was an auction and jazz band in the Tithe barn (Bardwell's Village Hall) with "Peter Pan" generating light and "Oliver" in steam outside. During the evening Jonathan Wheeler confirmed that the target had been reached.

Ivan Fear, with his 3" scale Burrell "Hope", receiving his commemorative mug 
from Jonathan Wheeler.

On the Sunday we headed out of Bardwell on a different  road, to Thelnetham Windmill. This went off without trouble, except for getting held up by those slow old single cylinder agriculturals.

First job when we arrived at Thelnetham was to put our chicken and potatoes in the smokebox, ready for lunch later. Then we had a look round the mill, which has been very well restored and is registered for food production. We even went out on the top, though I'm not sure it was a good idea! I found it quite easy to climb up a windmill with a video camera round my neck, it was not so easy to come back down but I managed (obviously!)

We then moved on through several miles of rural roads till we found a pub. After a brief stop we carried on to the Blue Boar (If I remember right) at Walsham - Le - Willows, passing a water stop where we were doused by Martin Fagg's water pistol. We decided to check the lunch there, much to the interest of various cameramen. Keith stabbed the chicken and decided it was done, so we massacred it on the back step of the trailer, as we'd forgotten the plates!

We also chained the spark arrestor to the smokebox crossbar, as it had nearly jumped out on a couple of occasions, ready to move to our next stop at Stanton Post Mill.

At Stanton we pulled up in the lay-by opposite the mill, and went for a look round.

After Stanton it was straight back to Bardwell again, though those old agriculturals held us up again....

I will finish by saying Thank You to the Marshals who made sure we knew where we were going, and that we had water, and to the Police who got us across the main roads without any "incidents".