Our famous model
of Poynton,
circa 1900
A labour of love!
In April 2009, we unveiled a giant model of Poynton as it looked around 1900. This model was painstakingly created by our very own volunteers at the museum! It has really come to life over the past few years and is now a wonderful tapestry of life in those times.
The inspiration behind the model
The following extract about Les Cawley, one of the founders of the Anson Engine Museum, tells of his love of the area resulting in the wonderful collection of photographs and memories housed in the museum to this day.
“Leslie (Les) Cawley Les was born in 1919 at 215 Stockport Road Ardwick, Manchester. His mother died when Les was only 4 years old, his father remarried and the family moved to Poynton in 1924.
He loved life in a coal mining village, especially observing all the workings and activities around the collieries. There was always plenty to keep him occupied - as a boy he was allowed inside the engine houses but only when they were winding coal not men. ‘Big Ned’ the huge Cornish pumping beam engine at Hockley held a particular fascination. He and his friends knew it was pumping as they left the ‘old school’ (now the social centre) to go home, because the water in the brook behind the school would be discoloured and they would rush up to see it running.
He would listen intently at the miners ‘stories’, often told whilst waiting for a ‘tuppeny haircut’ at Billy Butterworth’s stone cottage at Newtown. Billy was also the sawyer at Towers Yard, the administrative and workshop focus for all the collieries.
He was largely a self-taught, self-sufficient individual. Having used and worked on many makes of tractors, cars, wagons, motorbikes and stationary engines he acquired a marvellous mechanical knowledge. His great interests were local history mining and industrial archaeology, particularly in the fields of mining and engineering.
He had a wry sense of humour and a wonderfully ‘infectious’ chuckle. His memory was quite phenomenal, and he could remember the most incredible details of things past and present. Consequently, he had a never-ending fund of (true) stories which he exchanged with his many friends and acquaintances.”
