Sentinel Works, Shrewsbury

Starting Point - Shrewsbury Station. Round trip to former Sentinel Works. Distance 2.8 Miles

Above - Sentinel locomotive 68153 on the Middleton Railway. Below - Super Sentinel steam lorry.

Google Map

In the early 20th Century several firms around the country produce steam powered lorries. They turned out to have a fairly short lived popularity, in the aftermath of the first world war the market was flooded with petrol and diesel powered lorries that had been used in the war effort. The war also saw massive develop of internal combustion engined machines on both rail and road. Sentinel's route go back to the Glasgow works of Alley & MacLellan who started making steam lorries in Glasgow in 1905 before establishing the Sentinel Works in Shrewsbury in 1915. The original designs carried on in production in Glasgow until 1923 when Sentinel introduced their updated Super Sentinel. The Glasgow office buildings used an innovative pre-fabricated concrete design and this was also employed at the Shrewsbury works with parts of the works cast in kit form in Scotland.

Sentinel also ventured in to building steam shunting locomotives based on their steam lorry designs. Their vertical boilers were quicker to raise steam and more suitable for one man operation so were handy for smaller industrial railway systems and more occasional than regular use. 

Steam lorries had a bit of a resurgence around the second world war in the face of fuel shortages and the country's abundant coal supply but internal combustion had taken over shortly after the war. The company was taken over by Rolls Royce with the intention of producing diesel engines at Shrewsbury. Diesel locomotive production also took place but lorry production didn't. In the mid 1960s Sentinel developed their Steelman loco, earmarked to replace many steam engines still operating in the steel industry. In the end redundant British Railways class 14 locomotives that had seen little use proved to be a cheaper option and the orders dried up. Eventually locomotive production within the Rolls Royce group moved to Sentinel's former agents and maintenance specialist Thomas Hill of Rotherham who had also become part of Rolls Royce. Thomas Hill undertook several orders to convert Sentinel steam locos to diesel power, being ideally suited for conversion due to their chain drive arrangement. They also produced new locomotives under the Vanguard brand name, Thomas Hill also took on the goodwill and designs of the Yorkshire Engine Co at nearby Meadow Hall whose works I saw on a previous railway walk covered here.

Below- Sentinel diesel shunter on the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway.

The Sentinel works carried on producing parts for aerospace engines through the Rolls Royce family of companies and subsequent changes of ownership. Most of the works survives today with part of the site having been redeveloped as a Morrisons supermarket.

More about the history of Sentinel can be found on the Wikipedia article. 

The former works is a 1.4 mile walk from Shrewsbiry station, following the A5191 for most of the way. 

1927 Map

On the way one interesting sight is the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings. The mill was built for Thomas and Benjemin Benyon, pioneers of flax spinning and partners with Leeds Flax miller John Marshall who's Scotland Mill (near Leeds despite the name) and whose complex in Holbeck I have previously visited. I have yet to write up the visit to Scotland Mill but have previously covered the Holbeck mills in this article for the leedsengine.info website. 

Fires in the earlier mills of the industrial revolution were a common problem with many of the materials handled being quite flammable. This building addressed this problem by being build of brick around a cast iron frame. It is considered to be the grandparent of modern skyscrapers, such a historic building that parts of the complex have been given Grade 1, 2* and 2 listing. It operated as a Flax mill from 1797 to 1897, on closure it stood empty for around 10 years before being converted to a maltings as which it continued in use until 1987. At the time of my visit it was under restoration and largely obscured by scaffolding and surrounded by hording. At the time of writing it is about to reopen as a tourist attraction and offices so I'll visit another time when I can get a better look. More information, including a detailed history of the complex can be found on the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings website.

1927 Map

Continuing to the site of the Sentinel works we pass a Morrisons supermarket, this occupies part of the former works though thankfully much of the works including the earlier buildings and key buildings such as the offices survive.

Below- The former main entrance to the works (now replaced with a side entrance more suitable of the larger lorries around now. The Sentinel and his sword of the company logo still stand guard over the gateway. 

Steam lorries can occasionally be seen at the front of the former works as being possibly the most successful steam lorry make several survive in preservation and many owners will pose their restored examples in front of the works if they are in the area. Another location on the Sentinel grand tour is the Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen, a steeply graded route often used as a test track for the machines produced here.

It is interesting to note the position of the houses on the opposite side of the street built diagonally to the main road to provide a turning circle to allow lorries in and out of the gateway.

Below - The office building at the front of the Sentinel works.

Below - Heading north east along the A5112 some of the original works buildings can be seen.

Below - The northern edge of the complex. To the right of the image was once the end of a siding connected to the nearby railway to Crewe. The site of the end of the siding is now occupied by a women's gym. I didn't point my camera at the gym to take photos.

The old map also shows a small siding on the northern edge of the site, this looks to have been for the purpose of supplying coal to the factory's engines. This is now well within the surviving complex.

Below - The current side entrance to the complex with some more of the surviving works buildings.

Below - The southern edge of the complex has been demolished and redeveloped with the Morrisons supermarket and the road in to it. The office building forming the southern edge of the surviving complex.