Videos

Our Crofton Story

It has been a c.£900,000, three year project (2017-2020), grant financed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (‘The Fund’), through National Lottery Players. Crofton Pumping Station is owned by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust (KACT), a charitable company. This is our story.

A Guided Tour of Crofton Beam Engines with Phil Harding

Archaeologist Phil Harding, the Patron of Crofton Beam Engines, takes us on a tour around Crofton Pumping Station. Filmed in 2017.

Paul and Rebecca Whitewick – Where Does a Canal get its Water from?

We were lucky enough to welcome Paul and Rebecca to Crofton last summer and to feature in one of their amazing videos! Check out their YouTube channel for more videos on old abandoned railways, canals, routes and maps – https://youtube.com/@pwhitewick

The Crofton Beam Engine Symphony

Featuring a linear recording at Crofton Beam Engines

The Crofton Beam Engine Symphony composed by Richard Selman

© Richard Selman All rights reserved

Introducing the immersive experience of the “The Crofton Beam Engine Symphony”, an audio visual piece inspired by the powerful, spine chilling but somehow calming sound of a beam engine at work. Using a linear recording technique the sound of a whole engine is captured, something you would not normally be able to hear. This unique recording of our engines is set to a wonderful orchestral score with an accompanying atmospheric video of the engines at work and the surrounding environs. Huge thanks to Richard and his team for this fabulous work and for sharing it here and with our followers on social media.

Based on an original idea by Michael Doherty and Richard Selman

Taking a break from playing at an open day event Michael and I were listening to the powerful rhythms of the beam engines at work and came up with the idea of capturing the sound of the whole cycle of an engine. This is something you wouldn’t normally hear given that the engine is spread across the building, through different rooms and over 3 floors.  So we planned a linear recording process. The Crofton Beam Engine Museum kindly allowed us access to place microphones at strategic points across the site and trail cables to a central multitrack recorder.

Working on an audio master of the linear recording to be used as part of a live performance by “The Instant Acoustic Band” at a Crofton open day I ended up with the massive wall – rumbling sound of the beam engine in my front room. The sound of the whole beam engine is spine chilling, but like a deep pulse somehow relaxing and calming. This is the sound that inspired The Crofton Symphony.

Thanks to

• The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust at Crofton for access to record and film the beam engines.
• Jonathan Causebrook for the drawing of the Crofton Buildings.
• Peter Lamb at The Music Workshop, Devizes for help with the audio production.

Crofton Beam Engines in 1975 & 1976

Published by Burl Solomons

A digitised version of an original 8mm cine film of the world famous Crofton Beam Engines on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Originally shot in 1975 and 1976 by Dr Stanley Solomons, the film features the working beam engines doing the job they were originally built for in the early years of the Pumping Station’s preservation era. There is also footage of the short lived steam powered butty ‘Leviathan’ at the restored long pound at Wootton Rivers near Pewsey. The butty was run as a trip boat by the Crofton Society to raise funds for the restoration of the canal and beam engines. Also seen are the derelict and unrestored locks on the Crofton flight, and the unwatered dry canal, together with a display of model steam and traction engines.

Shot on Kodak Super 8 film using a Eumig Mini 5 camera

Crofton Beam Engines in 1975 & 1976 – Digitally Enhanced

Published by Burl Solomons

This is a digitally enhanced version of the film above which is made up from three reels of Super 8. It spans two visits to Crofton Beam Engines and the not very restored Kennet and Avon Canal at Wootton Rivers Lock in 1975 and 1976. Interesting short lived steam narrowboat trip on the lock pounds up from Wootton Rivers. Also seen are the derelict locks of the Crofton flight, and the long pound from Wootton Rivers to Devizes not in water. Apologies for the sometimes underexposed interior shots, but low light cameras were just not available to the amateur photographer in those days, and one of the films was messed up in developing by Kodak, according to the note my dad wrote on the mailer sleeve!

Shot by Dr Stanley Solomons on Kodak Super 8 film stock Eumig Mini 5 camera

Why you should visit the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, England

Published by Visit Pewsey Vale

Imagine a place that is the quintessential England – rolling countryside, country lanes, thatched cottages, white horses carved into the hills …… Well, you don’t have to imagine, you just need to visit the home of Crofton Beam Engines – the fabulous Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire in South-West England!