ARTHUR ROBERTS LETTER

[Stanley]

Hello Stanley
It has been a bit difficult to track down your e-mail address - I hope I have found Stanley Challenger Graham.
My name is Peter Ellis, and I was born (1945) and brought up in Sheffield. My mother was a close neighbour and near contemporary of Edgar Brook, and had known him from childhood. Dear old Edgar could talk the hind leg off a donkey, and as a child I used to dread meeting him whilst my mother and I were out shopping - after an hour or two I would be dragging at my mother's arm, and probably whining a bit as well.
As I got older, I developed an interest in steam engines - railway engines first, and then as I discovered them, other forms of steam power. I also realised that Edgar was a far more interesting chap than I had given him credit for as a toddler.
One of the first stationary engines I saw was Magnet Mill in Oldham in 1965 - and what a spectacular introduction to these superb machines. I had recently joined the Newcomen Society, and the Midlands branch organised a trip to Magnet Mill. Edgar was never a member, but knew several people who were, and we scrounged a lift (I did not drive until about 1968).
He subsequently pointed me in the direction of other stationary steam engines - I had relations in the north-east, and was lucky to see some of the Sunderland pumping stations before they stopped (thanks to Edgar), and I also visited other waterworks pumping stations and collieries as I found out about them. Arnold Throp also lived in Sheffield, of course, and I soon met him. I also corresponded with George Watkins, and eventually met him and
took him to a few engines (when I had got a car a few years later). He also put me in touch with Arthur Roberts, and we exchanged letters. By this time I had persuaded one of my railway enthusiast friends that Stationary engines were at least as interesting, and as he could drive we could get a bit further afield - when we could find out where engines still existed. We arranged to spend a week's holiday touring the Textile areas, and it was agreed that we would pick up Arthur Roberts from his home in Leeds, and he would act as navigator in return for our transport. I had not
realised how frail he was by that time, and as soon as we met him we knew that we had made a bad mistake. We took him round for one day, terrified that he would have a heart attack before we could get him back home! The next day we decided to pretend that my friend's car had broken down, and sent him a telegram to say we would not be picking him up, and that the rest of the week was doubtful.
This was the only time that I met him - a few weeks later his wife wrote to tell me that he had died, but that he had put some stuff aside for me - could I go over to Leeds the following Saturday. When I got to Chapel Allerton there were several other enthusiasts there, some of whom I had heard of but not met - including, I think, Frank Wightman and others. Mrs Roberts told me how worried she was when he had insisted on going out with us, and how relieved she was when we "broke down" and had to call the rest of the tour off! The engines he visited with us were the last steam engines
he ever saw. Put aside with my name on was a box of miscellaneous
photographs, a Pollit & Wigzell oval brass plate (1905) mounted on a wooden tea tray, and three black-backed notebooks full of details of steam engines that Arthur had visited and recorded.
I continued to visit steam engines for the next few years - until there were very few left. I think driving through Chadderton one day and seeing the ruins of Hawthorn Mill just about finished me off. There was a pile of bricks where the engine house had stood, and sticking up from the rubble were three spokes of the flywheel of that beautiful Saxon four-cylinder triple - a sight to bring tears to the eyes whenever I think of it, even now.
Life moved on, and steam engines took a back seat. Many years later I was obliged to move in with the girl who is now my wife, and consolidate two properties into one. A friend offered to store some of our overflow, and one way and another, by the time we tried to contact him to get it back, he had moved on and .... You get the idea. I lost a lot of stuff, but the things that have caused me to wake up in the night biting the pillow with shame were the three Arthur Roberts notebooks, lovingly transcribed and written out for me - how could I have been so careless as to lose them?
Recently, through my friend Dave Collier, I was directed to your site, and was able to download the notebooks from the Lulu site - imagine my relief that, despite my carelessness, these irreplaceable notebooks are now available. I cannot thank you enough for the work you have done transcribing and publishing them.
I am now retired, and am trying to put my steam engine notes into some sort of shape, together with many photos I took in the 60s and 70s. I will keep you informed of progress.
Thanks again for salving my conscience over Arthur Roberts' notebooks, and thank you also for your excellent work at Ellenroad.
Very best wishes
Peter Ellis
PS - I now live in Leicestershire.
Peter,
What a lovely mail to get first thing in the morning, brilliant! As for the email address, the spammers appear to have no difficulty!

Never mind, you have found me and I'm very pleased to hear from you on several levels. The most important is that you have confirmed the impression I got when deciphering the bad photocopy I have of the Black Book, I think I make it quite clear in the book I did that I decided they were thoroughly good men and years before their time. Then you confirm the guesses I made about the relationships between Edgar and Arthur and the other members of the group. I Knew Tim Hanson, Frank Wightman and ? (always forget his name!) at Rochdale in the nine years I spent doing the Ellenroad and Whitelees engines and I was often asked why I spent so much time listening to them, they suffered from the Old Man disease of never stopping talking about engines! (I sometimes find myself doing the same thing) It was these men who persuaded Holcrofts to give a home to the Whitelees which I later installed at Ellenroad, it's still there, running in steam.

I came in for some flak for publishing the Black Book. Some of the cognoscenti think it is just a mish mash of often defective details. I obviously didn't agree and while it is not the best-selling book in the world quite a few copies have sold and so their work is out there in the public domain. They're all dead now but I have an idea that they would be pleased to know that I did it and it's nice to know that I have eased your conscience, it was worth the effort just to have done that!

Please put some dates to yourself and the time of the trips, Arthur's death, anything you can think of. It will all be archived with my stuff and so will stand a chance of surviving.

Best, Stanley and thanks again for getting in touch.

[Stanley]

Bumped.
The book mentioned above is 'Steam engine research resources compiled by Stanley Challenger Graham and published by Lulu.com It is still available.
There is a lot of interesting stuff in there, Arthur Roberts' black books, Johnny Pickles notebooks and some bonus material as well. Some of this material is not available anywhere else.