Recreating History on The Green: Bringing Calne’s Historic Elevator Back Home

Calne has a proud manufacturing history, and one of its most famous local names was the Horsebrook Iron Works, better known simply as Maundrell’s. Located at the junction of The Green and Horsebrook, where Edreds Court now stands next to Maundrell House, the foundry grew from a nineteenth century smithy into a thriving business that built everything from farm tools to bacon factory machinery for C&T Harris.

Maundrell put the Progress Elevator on his stationery to highlight
the machinery that defined his work. Courtesy of G. Carr.

The Rolls Royce of Farm Elevators

Copy of original image.
Edited by author for clarity.

The foundry’s defining creation came around 1900, when Edward Ward Maundrell perfected a design for a hay and straw elevator, an agricultural conveyor built to lift loose or baled crops to build ricks and fill storage lofts. Drawing on his earlier days making Progress bicycles in Calne (one of which is on display at Calne Heritage Centre), he branded these rugged machines as Progress Elevators, earning them a reputation nationwide as the absolute Rolls Royce of the harvest field.

Painted in their signature creamy mustard yellow and chocolate brown, these machines were a common sight on local farms. Heavy duty models like the Progress Number 1 and the slightly smaller Number 2 were built to last for decades, yet cleverly designed to fold down small enough to
fit inside a standard low farm shed.

An elevator in action building a rick.

Coming Home to The Green

Anthony Rumming, better known as Fizzer to his friends, acquired the Progress Number 2 twenty years ago from a museum in Cornwall, where it had been for nearly fifty years, and brought it home to Calne to ensure a genuine piece of our industrial heritage was preserved.

L-R is Henry Wheeler, Nathan Carr, Anthony “Fizzer” Rumming, Lennon Clements, Darren Blackman.
📸 Ryan Zebedee

It has spent most of its recent life tucked safely away, and the first time it had been out of its
shed in a decade was earlier this summer, when it provided a working demonstration at the Heddington and Stockley Steam Rally. Bringing it to The Green gave Calne a rare chance to see the Progress Number 2 back where Maundrell’s once showcased their finest work.

Maundrell Progress No 2 on The Green, Calne
📸 Ryan Zebedee 

Fizzer hoped to recreate the scene captured in an old photograph showing an early Progress elevator displayed right here on The Green. While an exact modern match proved tricky, the sight of it drew plenty of attention. Passers by stopped to ask what was happening, and once they heard the story behind the iron works and the harvest field, they were genuinely fascinated.

Written by Tim Havenith, drawing on research by Peter Buckeridge. With thanks to Ryan Zebedee for the photography. See more of his work on Instagram.