Thwaite Mills - Stourton, Leeds

1932 - 120hp Marshall Engine

Restoration by Tony Simons and Keith Brown

This is a documentary/blog of the restoration of the Marshall Engine at Thwaite Mills, Leeds.

Having visited Thwaite Mills to see Nina, the keeper, she suggested that I should volunteer as she wanted the Marshall engine up and running. At the time I hadn't seen the engine and thought it would be no problem and it would probably be smaller than my 8HP Hornsby L Type.

Nina took me to look at it and it is big! Anyway I said yes and that's where this story begins.

I have indicated that its a 1932 Marshall and certainly the invoice for the engine is dated 1932 but we have subsequently learnt that they stopped production of this engine in 1928 and this was a cancelled export order that Mr Horn from Thwaite managed to purchase at a reduced price.

The engine had been stripped for repairs some 25 years ago, it was seized and it would appear that the cylinder head on number 3 cylinder had cracked and this had allowed water to enter the cylinder with the result that the piston had seized in the bore. Number 4 cylinder had been removed completely and we are not sure why. The big ends had been disconnected from 2 and 3 con rods and obviously 4 as the cylinder had been removed.

Inspection showed that the cylinder head had been repaired and a good job made of it.

So Keith, a friend of mine, and me set about putting it back together. Our first visit was an exploratory one to make sure all of the major bits were there. So in September 2012 notepad in hand off we set and made a list of items that we couldn't find. We were worried as we couldn't find 2 big ends and that would be a major and expensive problem. We shouldn't have worried as I got a message to say they were locked away safe. So we made arrangements to go back in October and start work.