Lister elevators

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
Seriously? Trying to cart before the rain and stack bales that involved a Lister elevator was definitely in my top 5 most stressful events.
Fair point, but I wasn’t the boss in those days, just the teenager who helped out because I loved it. I guess I was lucky to work for someone who either didn’t get stressed, or at least didn’t show it.
 

Vizslaman

Member
Location
Hampshire
Here is a question for the more senior members of the forum.

Does anyone have memories of a horse powered elevator ?
Early 1950's I lived at Warren Farm, Southall, Middlesex. which was owned by St Bernards Mental Hospital.
I recall one of the heavy horses walking round and round driving the elevator.
All attempts to find any information on these elevators has been fruitless.
 

Ley253

Member
Location
Bath
Strange no one has mentioned the BSA engine on the leyly, and JAP on the Lister. Those were the ones fitted to Grandfathers Leyly, and fathers Lister Lister was taken to the field once, then spent its life filling the barn, as did the Leyly, though that never left the farm yard,Two men with pitch forks being the field loading method. BSA engine was a gem, never failed to start, even after a winters rest, though needed a concrete block hanging underneath to help keep the belt tight. JAP was almost as good, and familiar, as we had a couple driving water pumps.
Electric drive would have been useless to us, farm had no power! Those were the days, a well and hand pump in the garden for house water, Vapalux and Tilly lamps for lighting in the cowsheds for milking, that being done with a gasgonie( excuse spelling) vacuum plant, driven by a Lister "D".Cowsheds cleaned by broom and fork, and dung carried to the field store heap by Horse and cart, too wet for the Model "N" Fordson.
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
Here is a question for the more senior members of the forum.

Does anyone have memories of a horse powered elevator ?
Early 1950's I lived at Warren Farm, Southall, Middlesex. which was owned by St Bernards Mental Hospital.
I recall one of the heavy horses walking round and round driving the elevator.
All attempts to find any information on these elevators has been fruitless.
I guess that would be a gin (probably where the word 'engine' comes from).
I know this one in the pic is not driving an elevator but it would be the same principle ..................
20200810_130334.jpg

Taken from this very good book by Alan Stennett.....
20200810_130347.jpg
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Here is a question for the more senior members of the forum.

Does anyone have memories of a horse powered elevator ?
Early 1950's I lived at Warren Farm, Southall, Middlesex. which was owned by St Bernards Mental Hospital.
I recall one of the heavy horses walking round and round driving the elevator.
All attempts to find any information on these elevators has been fruitless.
I seem to recall there is one at Acton Scott museum
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Here is a question for the more senior members of the forum.

Does anyone have memories of a horse powered elevator ?
Early 1950's I lived at Warren Farm, Southall, Middlesex. which was owned by St Bernards Mental Hospital.
I recall one of the heavy horses walking round and round driving the elevator.
All attempts to find any information on these elevators has been fruitless.
There are a few farms where you will find a roudhouse which was built to proveide power using a horse walking round. I have stayed at a couple of places in Yorkshire where these are to be seen
think one was at the Star Inn Harome, think this is @TripleSix country
 
There are a few farms where you will find a roudhouse which was built to proveide power using a horse walking round. I have stayed at a couple of places in Yorkshire where these are to be seen
think one was at the Star Inn Harome, think this is @TripleSix country

Aye, just across the road.

We always called them a wheelhouse, pretty common on farms in Yorkshire, proper name is a Gin Gang, "gin" being short for engine

Beamish has a complete one

2980173_4dea2ffb.jpg
 

JWL

Member
Location
Hereford
Going back to the Lister elevator, I can remember using one in the mid 80's. We would do no end of hay bales and they'd be stacked wherever. How many can remember moving them round on the road? Letting the jacks down to lower the elevator part but not too low to not hit the towing vehicle. I can still remember taking one down the roads not far from Warwick behind a new Collins Teleshift!
There were the big pig farmers near Warwick, IIRC Pinkney's, who had Lister elevator's bolted to the front of Bedford TK tractor units that lifted bales up and over the cab onto flat bed trailers with a couple of worker's stacking.
 

DaveB

Member
Location
Worcs
Going back to the Lister elevator, I can remember using one in the mid 80's. We would do no end of hay bales and they'd be stacked wherever. How many can remember moving them round on the road? Letting the jacks down to lower the elevator part but not too low to not hit the towing vehicle. I can still remember taking one down the roads not far from Warwick behind a new Collins Teleshift!
There were the big pig farmers near Warwick, IIRC Pinkney's, who had Lister elevator's bolted to the front of Bedford TK tractor units that lifted bales up and over the cab onto flat bed trailers with a couple of worker's stacking.
Yes, we often towed the elevator behind the dray in my photo to various places where we had made hay for other people and they wanted the bales put in the barn for them. One place I remember was an upper floor where the roof truss beams went across the floor at waist height with no gaps to walk through , so the bales had to be thrown over or pushed underneath. What a job. Similar granary at work had gaps with uprights to support the roof.
 
Going back to the Lister elevator, I can remember using one in the mid 80's. We would do no end of hay bales and they'd be stacked wherever. How many can remember moving them round on the road? Letting the jacks down to lower the elevator part but not too low to not hit the towing vehicle. I can still remember taking one down the roads not far from Warwick behind a new Collins Teleshift!
There were the big pig farmers near Warwick, IIRC Pinkney's, who had Lister elevator's bolted to the front of Bedford TK tractor units that lifted bales up and over the cab onto flat bed trailers with a couple of worker's stacking.

At harvest we towed ours behind a grain trailer so we could lower it right down, only a little 3 tonner.

At 18 I felt the man pulling my road train behind my David Brown 780
 
Have a 57 year old one bought new in the sixties now on its third Briggs and Stratton engine new last year from the States.Use it every year to load small hay bales into barn. Finally I load them at the bottom and the next generation is on the stack!!!!
 

solo

Member
Location
worcestershire
The elevator my father had was a lister BlackStone one which was 3phase electric with an extension at the top end that could be left level or manually drooped on a winding handle. It also had side boards which I believe were used for loading potatoes or possibly sugar beet. I wasn’t old enough to remember it being used on these. There was a detachable hopper for loading root crops at the bottom too. It was mainly used in the 1970’s and 80’s for bales onto lofts above the pig pens but also saw plenty of work loading bags of minerals, soya bean and fish meal onto the mill and mixer loft. Pallets and bulk deliveries rendered it redundant along with d1000 square bales.
 

Barleymow

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ipswich
Dad wrote ours off ,it had an extension which he caught the straw stack with and twisted the main bit of the elevator. He claimed on insurance it only cost £100 when we bought it lol
 

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