Burwell Engineers

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Engineers conducting repairs & installations on modern/historic textile & steam systems
Our engineers are available to work on pipefitting, plumbing, mechanical, steam & textile systems
This page covers restoration work at our Backbarrow Ironworks home

Time for another update from the Ironworks, recently our efforts have been focused mainly on bringing water back to our ...
01/09/2026

Time for another update from the Ironworks, recently our efforts have been focused mainly on bringing water back to our site. We were successful in fitting out the ironworks with green electricity, the next step was to see if we could hack into one of our two water sources. The river is still connected to our site, as one of our trustees found out back in 2018 when an digger breached the river pipe sending high pressured water out to quite some height! We however choose to have look into our secondary water source which is fresh spring water from up in the Haverthwaite Heights. We have managed to clear out the 2" pipe in the engine room using a drain snake tool and we now have running water back on site. Now in the photos you can see where our spring water comes from, located in the woods is a small stone building and inside is a Cornish boiler now converted into a tank with a bullet shaped tank next to it. The Cornish boiler is incredibly important to the site, as not only does it provide us with our water it could be down into single numbers regarding its age rarity, it had seen it's life in steam before becoming redundant and converted into a tank, it could easily date back to the 1820's possibly prior making it at least a 200 year old boiler!

To help re-instate our water system we've purchased some 2" pipe work and are beginning to refit the water trough and pipework through to the two boiler feed pumps, we are also looking for an 2" brass tap or gate valve for the pipe on top of the trough if anyone has any?

Moving on you can see that work has progressed on the Edgar Allen Blowing Engine, with some serious heavy duty grinding and polishing sessions! The flywheel is just about ready to be painted with its first layer of red oxide paint, and as you can see in the photos the engines cylinder and part of the steam chest has been complete.

Digging and excavation in the compressor house has continued as we slowly remove the infill located in that building to reveal the bottom workings of the old Willans Robinsons engine.

Finally, a thanks to Alister Stewart who has joined the team volunteering here at the ironworks.

It's been a while since we posted on the page, to be fair we've been quite busy! It's all been about power recently. We'...
16/06/2026

It's been a while since we posted on the page, to be fair we've been quite busy! It's all been about power recently. We've managed to get a 1960's 6Kw Kirloskar diesel generator on site, and currently we are planning the construction of an era style power station to up our grid so large workshop machines can be fitted into the museum room.

In other news though, you might be interested to find out about our collection of Armfield Engineers Turbines, both are Pelton turbines. The first one in our collection is the now completely restored British Empire type and is from the early 1900's. This machine was rescued from Blencathra in Cumbria and is now sat on display in the engine room. The first picture is of the sorry state of the turbine before we went through blood sweat and tears to bring it back to Backbarrow for restoration!

The second turbine is another Armfield Pelton Turbine, but this one is an even older variant with the design dating right back to the 1880's. This is our most recent acquisition and has been removed from a farm in Wales (the old owner has asked for us to keep the site quiet so that is sadly all we can say) he had interesting stories about when the turbine was in use when he was a child, we can say that the turbine was decommissioned in 1956.

These turbines are quite special, mainly due to them been quite possibly the last of their type from Armfield Engineers of this era, so it was only right for them to be preserved. I certainly haven't seen any of these before but you never know what's hiding under 6ft of silt in your local mill!

A long due update from Backbarrow Ironworks… Work has begun on restoring our blower engine. The photos show the first st...
17/04/2026

A long due update from Backbarrow Ironworks… Work has begun on restoring our blower engine. The photos show the first stage of stripping removing the rear cover and showing the rubber suction valves. On top of this the usual grinding and painting, the blower is to be painted in gun green and black, which is how it was when in operation.

In bigger news, we have finally figured out the engines manufacturer and production date! For years before Burwell Engineers had even taken the site on historians and enthusiasts have named her the Tangye engine, believing that she had come from an old textile mill second hand, coupling up to a new blower. Today in a BIHT meeting a new valuation document from 1941 (valuations of industrial sites where common during the Second World War) we found out that the engine is actually a Edgar Allen of Sheffield machine built specifically designed for the site! This was amazing news for Burwell as both Will and I are Yorkshiremen and it also fits in well with connections to Sheffield Steel alongside orders we’ve found for pig iron deliveries to Stocksbridge Steelworks.

This news is fantastic as we now not only have the only horizontal piston blowing engine left in the UK, but also the last remaining Edgar Allen engine. This connects Cumbrian iron making to Sheffield steel making perfectly!

We’re beginning to create an interesting collection of engines on site, the last remaining Edgar Allen Horizontal Blowing Engine, our Armfield Engineers British Empire Pelton Wheel and Josh Waddington & Sons of Barrow in Furness’s Hindpool Foundry as a converted workshop engine, again perhaps the only one in preservation.

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