From the Long Shop Museum. Pay attention, there may be a test later!
The museum is fundamentally about Richard Garrett and Sons at the Leiston Works, famous mostly for their steam engines (and not to be confused with Herbert William Garratt who designed the articulated steam locomotive that bears his name - more on this later). They actually started in 1778 when the first Richard Garrett took over the forge at Leiston. Initially their main products were edge tools and general agricultural items but they soon moved into making the Balls Patent Thresher when the second Richard married John Balls daughter. From there they expanded into various agricultural machines, initially horse powered then started making steam engines. These later included agricultural tractors, road rollers and steam wagons. The company didn't do much in the way of internal combustion engines, probably as the son who was keen on developing that side of the business was killed in the Great War but they did a lot of electric vehicles including Trolley Buses and a fleet of refuse lorries for Glasgow.
The firm lost a lot of money following the Russian Revolution when the new government repudiated sizeable debts and in 1919 combined with several other steam and other engineers to form Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd. This only lasted until 1932 when trading conditions and poor management sent it into receivership. Leiston Works however were subsequently taken over by Beyer Peacock Ltd and renamed Richard Garrett Engineering Works Ltd, so in the end they did make parts for the Beyer Garratt engines! They made a lot of other machinery over the years, including dry cleaning and laundry machines (probably as a result of making steam boilers for that industry), extruding machines and, in wartime, arms, ammunition and FE2/B aircraft. After various owners in the 1970s the works finally closed in 1979.
The museum is well worth a visit for anoraks just to see the huge variety of things produced by a general engineering company of that era. There are plenty of items of interest including the Suffolk Punch steam ploughing tractor which attempted to compete (unsuccessfully) with IC engined models and a slightly odd industrial tram loco that's a cross between a railway engine and a traction engine. The Long Shop by the way was one of the first production line manufacturies.
After the museum I headed in to Southwold where I had an indifferent toasted sandwich in a cafe and a rather better pint of Adnams Ghost Ship in a pub, as well as stocking up on Sole Star for tomorrow's BBQ.
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