This year’s Prickwillow Ploughing Festival was a great success, in spite of the weather forecast keeping numbers down on the Saturday. The proceeds were all donated to charity – split between Cancer Research UK and Prickwillow Museum.
There was great support from the exhibitors with increased numbers of tractors - ploughing and static, commercial vehicles, stationary engines, classic cars and motor bikes. The steam was a great attraction, especially the full size combination of engine and thrashing drum. Prickwillow Museum was a constant buzz of activity, with demonstration runs of the engines and even the opportunity to don Victorian hats and accessories and have your photo taken by visiting ‘Victorians’!
The live music and children’s entertainer maintained a lively and friendly atmosphere around the bar and food area at the festival, while craft and trade stalls, children’s rides and games, bygones and demonstrations provided added interest for all.
Plans are already afoot to make next year’s event on 7th and 8th October even better!!

If you have any photographs of the day you'd be willing to share here on our blog, we'd love to see them! Contact us here.

There was a good turnout of both families and engine enthusiasts to the event day on July 24th giving a good cross section of people and a very friendly atmosphere. The percussion workshop was very popular, as was the RSPB nature trail, and the face painter was busy all day. All the family fun activities were free as part of the OuseFest, and included the opportunity to meet Cornelius Vermuyden and his secretary.
 
An undoubted highlight of the day was the re-launch of one of the most spectacular engines in our collection, the very rare 1921 Vickers Petter engine. It was re-started following 2 years of repair works, necessary after it developed a major fault in 2014.  It has always been a particular favourite with visitors since it requires blowlamps to heat up the cylinder heads before it can be started, and there was spontaneous applause when it was back in action.
 
The engine developed a lubrication problem which resulted in damage to the main bearings and one of the big end bearings which all needed recoating with white metal. After the engine was dismantled to discover the full extent of the damage, and funding secured, the bearings were sent away to STM Engineering to be machined, remetaled, peaned and machined back to size, complete with oil ways. During the works to rebuild the engine, by the Museum ‘Tuesday gang’ volunteers, all gaskets have been hand-made (20 O-ring & main copper per cylinder). A new oil pump has been installed and the cooling water rerouted. New blowlamps were needed and these were recast with a purpose made pattern by East Coast Casting. The fuel injectors needed to be sent away to be re-machined by Colchester Fuel Injection Ltd, at a generous discounted cost.

When the Vickers Petter was being put back together and trialled, water leaked from the seals on the cylinder heads. Two cylinder head gaskets had to be specially made by East Anglian Sealing Company Ltd to solve the problem.  After a few teething problems, which have been resolved, the engine now runs better than it has done for many years.  
 
We are very grateful to the Association for Industrial Archaeology for their grant, for donations from local companies and individuals, and for the many hours put in by our volunteers, which have made this restoration possible.

Paul Dunham, Chairman of Prickwillow Engine Trust
We are very grateful to people who attended the OuseFest Family Day and joined in the celebrations of the restarting of the Vickers Petter after two years restoration works. It was great to see so many people enjoying themselves, particularly the young, who will be the lifeblood of the Museum in the future.
 
John Jones, treasurer of AIA, Association for Industrial Archaeology, one of the major supporters of the project
This is a superb restoration of a historic engine and it is great that we have been able to assist the Museum in giving the engine another life.
 
Bob Lucas, volunteer engineer at the Museum
It was so rewarding to see the Vickers Petter back in action after all the hard work. The spontaneous applause from the visitors when it was started up made it all worthwhile.
 
Oscar Thomson, aged 10, a regular visitor
It was awesome – watching the flames start up the engine again was amazing!

We are delighted to announce that Prickwillow Museum is
hosting an exhibition organised by The Pathways Project team called Sensing Landscape: artists and children working together, which is available as part of your visit to the Museum, from Sunday 22 May for approximately 3 or 4 weeks during normal opening hours.
This exhibition, which features the work of Kyle Kirkpatrick and Rachel Wooller (who have worked with children in Soham and Wilburton), invites viewers to reflect on the many ways local children sense their landscape.
For the past three years, the Pathways Project team have been working with primary school children in East Anglia, learning what they think about their environment, letting them guide them on walks, and fostering engagement with local artists, archaeologists, story tellers and writers in order to elicit these children’s perceptions of their place in the world.  Similar activities were undertaken in Mongolia, Mexico, Alaska, and South Africa and several schools took the opportunity to engage in intercultural interchanges electronically and through letters.  

Pathways to Understanding the Changing Climate: time and place in cultural learning about the environment is a collaborative initiative between Social Anthropology and Education at the University of Cambridge and has been funded by AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council).