By David Eaton
What shall I build next? We have all asked that question at sometime or other. Here are a few tips on how to look for informationon on your chosen prototype, based on my experiences in researching the “Hindley Lorry”, a model of which I am now building.
When I started my research, I already had some pictures from “Old Glory”, and of course the “History of Hindley” (written by me!) together with an electronic copy of the Hindley Wagon catalogue. The Hindley Company was a Dorset company but there were no records of it in the Dorset Record Office, so I was forced to look further afield. The Hindley Company was taken over by Dodmans of King’s Lynn in the 1920s, so perhaps the records went there?

Using the internet, I found that the Norfolk Record Office had some drawings and records of Dodmans as did the King’s Lynn Museum.

Whilst the internet is a useful tool, for examining records there is nothing like the “Mark 1 eyeball”, so I decided to go to East Anglia, after having first of all made appointments with the Norwich Record Office and the Kings Lynn Museum to visit them. I went to the Norwich Record Office first of all, and after booking in, I asked to see the Dodman archive. They produced 8 or 9 folders, each about 4 inches thick, and those were just the drawings! Each folder had to be opened, and every drawing examined. It took about 4 hours to look at all the drawings of engines and I found nothing - nothing of relevance to my inquiry but several other interesting drawings such as the Clayton & Shuttleworth Overtype Steam Lorry, which seems to have been forgotten.

I moved on to King’s Lynn and followed the same routine there. Unfortunately the museum has only one gallery open and most of the items were stored elsewhere but the curator was happy to accompany me to the reserve storage where the photographs were retained. Again, I have found that most archivists/curators are only too happy to help serious researchers. This time there were several photographs of the Hindley steam wagon, and it took only a matter of minutes to photograph them. The curator also mentioned that they have the entire archive of Savages, the fairground steam company, so if you want to build something by Savages, then a visit to the King’s Lynn museum might be called for. You could combine that with a visit to Bressingham, which can be useful if you have to take “ ‘er indoors” with you.

The results of my trip were several photographs of the lorry at a much better resolution than the printed ones in Old Glory. Subsequently I found a Hindley Wagon (full size) under restoration, (well the builder calls it restoration, but he has only the wheels!) and also another builder of the model .

For those who have not visited a record office/county archive, archives are free to view, and whilst they make a charge for photocopying, anyone is welcome to browse anything in the archive and take notes and digital photographs (but ask first!). On your first visit take your driving licence or passport with you for evidence of identity and if possible a utility bill as well with your address on it. Then you can be issued with a reader’s ticket.

Remember that in many record offices, gloves must be worn when handling records (usually disposable vinyl gloves are available) and all notes must be in pencil.

The biggest problem that I found is when looking for something, you may easily get side-tracked, and your research is then left for another visit!

Patents are another good source of information, but the only way of researching them is to find a company that specialises in that (expensive!), or to go in person to the British Library in London where you can then consult the original specification. Again, entry is free, but the process of getting a reader’s ticket is quite time consuming.

The National Archive at Kew is also a good source of information but again getting a reader’s ticket can take time. However, if you have internet access, the website “Access to Archives” allows you to search any archive/record office for references.
The full size Hindley Steam Wagon being recreated in Dorset and mentioned in the text.