Cotswold Life October

Each month the team at Gloucestershire Archives delve into our diverse collections and put together a piece that appears in Cotswold Life magazine. This article, written by John Putley, appeared in the October 2021 issue. 

Photograph of the Month

Gloucestershire Archives GPS/368/149

You can almost hear the cacophony of sounds, feel the heat and smell the coal smoke in this wonderful picture of the traction engine ‘The Duchess of Worcester’ at the Winchcombe Mop Fair sometime after 1901.  The people include the owner Mr Peters, who may be the man on the left with the blackened hands (or he might be the fireman!).  The ‘Duchess’ was built by Charles Burrell & Sons of Thetford, Norfolk in 1900 and was a Showman’s Road Locomotive (No. 2350).  These were made for travelling showmen who operated roundabouts and other fairground rides.  They were typified by a full length canopy with twisted brass supports and bright painted bodywork that was usually personalised – as can be seen here with the legend ‘F. Peters & Son Galloping Horses’ visible on the canopy.  The engines were practical dual-purpose machines that hauled dismantled rides in wagons from fair to fair and also generated electricity to light and drive the rides (via a belt-driven dynamo visible at the front).  Sadly, this particular engine hasn’t survived but the next one in sequence, No. 2351 ‘Ephraim’, does and can be seen regularly at county steam fairs.