25/11/2025
Surrey Industrial History Group Award
Townsend Hook Restoration acknowledged.
Just under 10 years ago, a group of Amberley railway volunteers completed the cosmetic restoration of the Museum's oldest steam locomotive, the 3ft 2¼in gauge Townsend Hook which was built by Fletcher Jennings in 1800. Along with its sister loco, William Findlay, it worked at the chalk quarries at Betchworth, off the A25 in Surrey. A third Fletcher Jennings, Captain Baxter, also worked there and this being a standard gauge machine, is now at the Bluebell Railway. There are only two other locos surviving from this manufacturer, both built in the 19th Century for the Talyllyn Railway in Mid-Wales where they continue to earn their keep operating trains on the well known narrow gauge line, the first to be run by volunteers in the UK.
Townsend Hook was rescued by members of the Brockham Museum Association, and after being stored in the open at Brockham Museum, came to Amberley with the rest of the Brockham collection which forms the basis of the collection here.
The work was completed by a team, led by Mike Bone, including Peter Newman and Eric Miller both now sadly no longer with us, and Evan George. Additional help was provided by other members of the RailGroup as required. Following the renovation, all five were gathered at Tywyn, the headquarters of the Talyllyn Railway, for the railway's 150th anniversary. William FIndlay now resides in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn.
Earlier this year, the Museum was contacted by the Surrey Industrial Heritage Group who told us that they had been considering making an award in recognition of a local restoration and had decided to make this award to the Museum for its project to display Townsend Hook and other artefacts from the Betchworth Quarry.
Members of the SIHG came to Amberley in November and after coffee and biscuits and an illustrated presentation by Michael Herbert on the history of the quarries at Betchworth, the Chairman of SIHG, Garry Brooks, presented a plaque to Katrina. We then took the train up to Brockham where the display was inspected (and approved of as far as we can tell!).
The party was then shown round the rest of the collection including the current work on Polar Bear.
The Museum and the railway volunteers, in particular, are very pleased that our hard work has been recognised. Thanks are due to the SIHG for the recognition and for the donation they also made to the Museum.
All that is left is to decide how and where to mount the plaque.
