The National Motor Museum Trust

A new event for 2010 sees a reprise of the steam events that were so popular during the early years of the Beaulieu attraction.

For more information please see the Beaulieu Attractions Steam Revival events page »

On 26 June 2009, the National Motor Museum took delivery of the Grenville Steam Carriage.

Believed to be the oldest self-propelled passenger-carrying road vehicle still in working order, it was steamed for the occasion and made several demonstration circuits around the grounds of Beaulieu.

Built over a period of 15 years, it was Robert Neville Grenville who, having studied engineering at the South Devon Railway workshops, Newton Abbott, first penned the designs about 1875 at his Butleigh Court workshops, Glastonbury. Grenville enlisted the help of friend and fellow South Devon Railway student, George Jackson Churchward, who would later become Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway, Swindon. It is at Swindon that some of the parts could well have been made and the use of construction techniques more akin to railway rolling stock is evident in the frame and wheels.

The vertical boiler, believed to have been built by Shand Mason & Co., was of a type used for the pump on horse-drawn fire engines and, although the Grenville is now fitted with a replica, this in turn was built by the same company in the 1930s. Although intended to be operated by two people, it is somewhat easier with three.

The driver has control of the throttle and cut-off levers, the whistle via a foot pedal, and the brake pedal. On the driver’s left and in charge of the tiller sits the steersman whilst at the back the fireman has a small seat in the engine compartment and is responsible for firing the boiler and maintaining its water level. On the flat, the carriage can attain a speed of just under 20mph/32kph and consumes about five gallons of water and 6lbs of coal per mile. There is seating for four passengers.

The Grenville has been on display at Bristol Industrial Museum since 1947. Closed in 2006 and currently undergoing a major revamp, plans for the new Museum of Bristol had unfortunately left the Grenville without a home. Through the sterling efforts of Bristol's Museums, Galleries and Archives Curator of Industrial & Maritime History, Andy King, the steam carriage will initially be displayed at Beaulieu on a two-year loan with the view to becoming a permanent resident thereafter.

We are indebted to Mr King for his invaluable help in arranging the transfer to the National Motor Museum and also the enthusiastic band of volunteers who travelled all the way from Bristol to demonstrate the Grenville in June.

Find out more by contacting our Motoring Research Service »