Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023
Margaret has self-published her story of a Lincolnshire steaming family in memory of her late father Horace Smith, a talented man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of steam traction engines.
He had worked with them from childhood, as had his father, George, and soon found his niche in restoration work when the rally scene began. Subsequently many engines passed through his hands.
It was in the early 1890s at the aptly named Engine Lane in Friskney, Lincolnshire, where three young brothers Crosby, George and Alf Smith were becoming familiar with the principles of steam engines - their father Joseph working as a threshing contractor.
Charles was the youngest son from Joseph's first marriage and was a draughtsman at Fosters of Lincoln. He drove Foster Wellington tractor No 3633 in the RAC Commercial Vehicle Trials of 1907. Fosters won the silver medal and Charles was also awarded a silver medal for punctuality and prize money of 5 pounds - the silver medal still being in the family. So, sit back and enjoy the tales of this Lincolnshire agricultural family, the book being peppered with lovely illustrations of engines, yards and threshing scenes, almost all of them hiltherto unpublished. The family owned some lovely engines over the years, including Foden No 322, which would be the oldest surviving Foden if still with us. Readers will learn of the early days of steam and the legends that arrived later as Lincolnshire steam men - men such as Frank Strange - and the early years of preservation.
s/b, 21cm x 15cm, colour and b/w
Code No. 016213, 184 pages, $45.00