Leiston Museum Honors Industrial Pioneers

By Marilyn Loeser

It’s quiet in the museum.

The only sound is footfalls made by a trio of tourists passing by displays as they admire centuries of industrial ingenuity.

It’s easy to imagine the ghosts of long-ago designers and engineers talking about the latest ideas and products, the clamor of machinery and the gears of industry turning between 1776 and 1981.

For more than two centuries, Leiston — a small community in eastern Suffolk, England — was a thriving manufacturing town dominated by Richard Garrett & Sons, the owners of the Leiston Works.

In 1778, Richard Garrett — a blacksmith making farm implements such as sickles — moved from his first business location in Woodbridge to Leiston. There he set up an agricultural engineering workshop which, under his grandson, Richard Garrett III, became the first in England and one of the first in the world to use production line techniques.

Today, the only memory of this time is kept alive by longtime Leiston residents and the Long Shop Museum. The museum is housed in part of the original industrial complex where agricultural machinery, steam engines, trolleybuses, munitions during military conflicts and any number of other products were made. The Leiston Works is most famous for its portable steam engines and threshers. The rest of the massive industrial compound has been demolished and the land used for housing.

In 1919, the family business joined forces with Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE). The partnership failed in 1932 and was purchased by Beyer Peacock. The business continued as Richard Garrett Engineering Works until it closed in 1981.

As with any museum, some rooms are dedicated to the founders, their accomplishments and personal affects.

Several areas feature large black and white illustrating another time when the bustling complex turned out everything from clothes dryers to Gypsy wagons — 200 years of Leiston's social and industrial history.

Long Shop was built in 1852/53 for the assembly line production of portable steam engines. Wandering through the brick and concrete structure, guests will find an impressive collection of products made at Garretts including traction engines, seed drills and dry cleaning machines.

There also is a History of Steam exhibition which illustrates the history of steam from its earliest period — when it was discovered that steam had power and energy —  to the 21st century and Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Nuclear Power Stations.

Whether your interest is in industrial history or just history in general, you are sure to enjoy an hour or a day here in this time capsule — Long Shop Museum.

Long Shop Museum is located on Main Street, Leiston, Suffolk.

For more information on times, admission and special programs, check the website at www.longshop.care4free.net.