Vintage shearing machine crosses the world to appear at Corwen Museum
The machine has travelled 30,000 miles to after being discovered in Australia.
Jim Ritchie of Corwen Museum, Leah Edwards of South Denbighshire Community Partnership, and Roger Hayward, Chair of Trustees of SDCP. Pic: Mandy Jones.
Submitted by Alistair Syme
A mechanical sheep-shearing machine that is over 100-years-old has completed a 30,000-mile round the world trip to Australia and back.
The machine, from 1909, was developed by the Gloucestershire firm of the RA Lister and CO, but was discovered in Australia by Trefor Jones, who has loaned it to the museum in his home town of Corwen, Denbighshire.
The museum plans to re-open when lockdown ends but in the meantime visitors can get a flavour of its attractions thanks to a set of illustrated information boards paid for by their neighbours, social enterprise group South Denbighshire Community Partnership (SDCP), at Canolfan Ni.
They chart the rich history of the town and its surrounds from the days when Roman legions marched up Watling Street past the site of the museum through local man Owain Glyndwr’s rebellion in the 15th century to the arrival of the stagecoach and the railway.
Jim Ritchie, Corwen Museum Chairman, said: !The boards give a taste of some of the attractions we have at the museum and are for local people and visitors who we hope will call in when we re-open.
"We hope that will be in May or June when people will be able to see this wonderful shearing machine which turned up in Australia in good condition apart from the wooden handle which had rotted.
"Mr Jones contacted Listers and amazingly they found one remaining wooden handle in their stores and sent it to us and it still turns just as it would have done when it was an essential tool of sheep shearers everywhere.
"Before the Lister machine was invented all shearing would have had to be done using hand clippers and Listers are still going and still making shearing equipment."
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Roger Hayward, Chairman of the Trustees of SDCP, said: “This is aimed at visitors to the town and also for local people many of whom don’t know about our rich history.
"This is a way of giving them a taste of it in little bite-sized snippets and hopefully it will encourage more visitors to the museum."
The museum opened in 2015 and is run by the Edeyrnion Heritage and Cultural Society, and since opening has attracted over 20,000 visitors and benefited the local economy by over £400,000.
