...Kevin Bragg's Aveling-Barford steam roller is a product built from when there was much uncertainty in the industry. John Hobbs discovers more about this interesting machine.

The attractive combination of Kevin Bragg’s Aveling-Barford steam roller and his living van, which also has a Barford connection. JOHN HOBBS

Just over 70 years ago the major elements within Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd. were in a spot of financial bother, which was nothing new to its management. Formed in 1921 during the post 1914-18 War slump with the amalgamation of 14 businesses – most were well-known names that included Blackstone, Burrell, Davey Paxman, Garrett and J. and F. Howard. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and its associated depression created business conditions which A.G.E. could not cope with in spite of rationalisation and in February 1932 the businesses collapsed into the arms of the official receiver.
Plans had included the transfer of Barford & Perkins Ltd. from its Peterborough site to surplus property at Aveling & Porter in Rochester with the ultimate objective being the merger of the two road roller businesses. In 1931 Thomas Lake Aveling died and the collapse of A.G.E. almost immediately followed.
Thereafter, Edward Barford managed to raise sufficient finance to purchase from the receiver the two businesses of which he became managing director. A merger under the name Aveling-Barford Ltd. followed, and then during the winter of 1933/4 that business, together with its 10,000 tons of stores and equipment, was transferred from Rochester to a new site in Grantham that was surplus to the requirements of Ruston & Hornsby Ltd.
Road steam was then facing an uncertain future and plans were made to concentrate the activities of Aveling-Barford Ltd. around its expanding range of internal combustion engined road rollers. There was still a continuing but diminishing demand for steam rollers, and to meet that, the company offered its Class R, T and W rollers that incorporated both Aveling and Ruston & Hornsby features. Before then, utilising new parts and those in stock, it turned out a number of rollers to traditional Aveling & Porter designs. These were in the range of works numbers 14179-87. Of those, five are preserved in the UK; one, class AC No.14186 (ENN 173), being now owned by Kevin Bragg of Okehampton.
Although Kevin’s roller carries the penultimate number within that grouping, the roller’s recorded date of delivery, June 13, 1938, suggests that it was the last of them to be delivered to new owners, and that makes it a significant piece of road-rolling history.
Kevin has spent hours delving into his roller’s past. It was from the records of the late Alan Duke that he was able to establish that his roller was likely to have been the last to be delivered, although the works numbers of the engines appear to relate to the dates of the build of the boilers, where that of No.14186 is shown to have been built before that of No.14187.

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