Anthony the Steam Engine – a Heritage Open Days tour

A sold out tour of the historic steam engine at Clarks HQ. A unique and much loved piece of industrial history.

Ahead of this years’ Heritage Open Days tour of HQ we’re visiting Anthony the steam engine. Heritage open days isa national campaign celebrating our countries rich cultural heritage and this year’s theme is ‘everyday stories – the working lives of people’. Street was built around the factories and workers behind the Clarks shoemaking business.  Anthony is a unique part of that story. The tours of HQ are sold out this year but we are hoping to plan more in the future.

Anthony the Steam Engine was comissioned by John Anthony Clark in 1910 to provide power to the Clarks shoe factories in Street. Not only did it provide power to the shoemaking machinery in the factory it also provided street lighting to the Village of Street. The Cole Marchent and Morley horizontal steam engine was in use between the 1910-1920 and the 1960s. Despite being out of use since then it continues to be cared for and is now part of the Shoemakers Museum collections.

This years’ theme for Heritage Open Days is everyday stories – the working lives of people. Street was built around the factories and workers behind the Clarks shoemaking business. So a rare visit to Anthony is our contribution. Although the tours are sold out for this year we are hoping to plan more in the future.

To get the latest on talks, tours, and what’s on events at Shoemakers Museum sign up to the newsletter.