The oldest known surviving crane built by historic Bath engineering company Stothert & Pitt has been officially handed over to Bath & North East Somerset Council.
The 6-ton hand operated crane, which was built around 1864 and was used in quarries near Bath, has been restored and installed at Newark Works Yard in Bath Quays, the site of Stothert & Pitt’s factory.
The crane was gifted to the council by the Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust last year and has now been officially handed over during the ceremony by Nina Pollard.
Mrs Pollard’s late husband David was the owner of Hartham Park Quarry near Corsham, a historian and the founder of the trust.
The crane was used at Pictor’s Wharf in Box near the Great Western Railway and at Clift Quarry on Box Hill, where it worked until 1974.
It was much smaller than most manufactured at Stothert & Pitt, known as ‘cranemakers to the world’.
The company, which was at one time Bath’s largest employer, provided the machinery that built the Great Western Railway and the Titanic. Examples of its huge 35-ton steam-powered dockside cranes can still be seen on Bristol’s Harbourside.
Its riverside factory on Lower Bristol Road closed in 1989, effectively ending Bath’s industrial age.
chair of the council Sarah Moore said: “I am proud to accept this gift on behalf of Bath & North East Somerset Council.
“Stothert & Pitt was founded in Bath in 1785, so this crane represents an important part of Bath’s industrial heritage and stands as a tribute to the many people who worked there.
“I want to thank the Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust, who donated the crane to the council for future generations to enjoy, and the members of the Stothert & Pitt Crane Restoration Group, who have spent years restoring the crane to its former glory.”
Although the original ironwork was still sound when the group started to work on it, all the crane’s timbers had to be replaced.
The restoration project was funded by Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust, The Association for Industrial Archaeology, The Bristol industrial Archaeological Society, The Cotswold National Landscape, Hawker Joinery, Stephen Kerrs and Neil Garrett.
The restoration group members are Peter Dunn, Arthur Feltham, Varian Tye, Mary Sabina Stacey, Tony Wray, Paul Cooper, Nina Pollard, Mike Dodd, Stuart Burroughs and Geoff Wallis.
BAM Construction carried out the full assembly of the crane at Bath Quays under their supervision.
The once-derelict Grade II-listed Stothert & Pitt buildings have recently been transformed by developer and regeneration specialists TCN into modern workspace aimed primarily at Bath’s burgeoning creative and tech sectors.
Pictured at the official handover of the crane: Bath & North East Somerset Council chair Cllr Sarah Moore and Nina Pollard
