At the back of the boiler room, often overlooked but never undervalued, is this charming Stott and Co engine and Clarkson Boiler. The Bursledon Brick Company was a huge operation with capacity to produce 20 million bricks a year, but in the early 1900s there were many smaller brickworks serving local markets that made use of engines like these. This engine was manufactured in Haslingden near Manchester and used in Winchester – not for brick making, but to power a screen scraper at a sewage pumping plant. It has been on display at the Brickworks Museum since 2001.

This pump caught our attention in 2021 when an unfortunate wear pattern on the paintwork appears to proudly declare part of this artefact to be a ‘Size 2 Beccles Donkey Puke’. It is, of course, a Size 2 Beccles Donkey Pump (and we will ask our conservation team to crack out the red paint to amend the plate!)

No donkeys were harmed in the making of this post 😉