Now I wouldn’t normally associate a steam preservation society with Pub memories, but one occurred to me this afternoon.
When I used to live in Maidenhead, a colleague lived on the way to Reading and he had two Pubs just round the corner down a lane- The Queen Victoria, and the Queen Adelaide, known locally as the Two Queens. Then a new Landlord took over the Adelaide and after having been referred to several times as the Publican of “The other Queen” he decided a change of name was in order. He renamed it “The Whippet Inn” and he even arranged for the special brewing of an apple based beverage, known as “Whippet Inn Cider”.
Now the connection is rather tenuous- the mill engine is a tandem type with two halves also named after Queens- Victoria and Alexandra. I have passed the building numerous times not knowing what it was, but a chance posting on Postman Patel earlier in the year made me want to visit it (sadly, he has died recently).
They steam on the first Monday of the month and it is well worth the £3 they charge you (which pays for about a minute of the coal to run the beast). It originally developed about 2 Megawatts of power from four (of five) Lancashire boilers with 160psi of steam, now that the engine is load free it runs at the design speed (just under 60rpm) with just 25psi from one remaining original boiler, still pleasingly on coal. (Many preservation societies have modern gas based steam generators).
The reason it runs under no-load conditions is that the Mill that it used to power has long been demolished, although the engines serviced it from 1919 to 1970 (then a further five years at reduced power as the machinery was progressively electrified). The engines actually date from 1892 in an earlier form powering spinning mules, but the first mill burnt down in 1916.
As the mill has gone, the vast cathedral-like cavity known as the rope-race is also no-more. Originally 44 rope sets on the main flywheel went up to the various floors and there is a vague representation of this with a large wall graphic (and a large model in another room). I have seen a mostly intact one at Wigan Pier but not in steam and the sticker from Ellenroad suggests that the Trencherfield Mill one may no longer run.
You can find the Ellenroad website here.
