Lister before they made boat engines

Whilst in Shropshire we spent a day at Acton Scott, the historic working farm you may have seen on telly in the programme "Victorian Farm". It feels a bit like you're in a Thomas Hardy novel as the farm work goes on all around you old fashioned style.

As well as old breeds of pigs, cows, chickens and what have you wandering about, we also watched the haymaking,

and a quite spectacular job of fitting a new rim to a wagon wheel, heating the metal first in an incredibly hot fire. The two blokes doing the job had to drench their clothes and hats in a tub of water before setting about the work, producing lots of smoke, flames and steam.

later we wandered round the large collection of old farm machinery, ploughs etc. and I was quite surprised when in the dairy I spotted this old cream separator made by Listers of Dursley. Yep, that's the very same Lister that made all the boat engines, and still does today under the Lister Petter brand. I also saw some old Lister sheep shearing equipment and Googlng them today I find that they still do make shearing stuff. Not a lot of people know that. Well I didn't anyway.