The first portable engine produced by Charles Burrell & Sons and their first steam engine of any kind was completed in 1846. This engine survived in a derelict form in the St Nicholas works yard until the 1920s before being scrapped. Three engines of this early design with wrought iron boilers were produced and exhibited at the RASE in the late 1840s. Following this development was rapid and in only five years by 1851 the design of portable engines had matured into a form that was to remain unaltered for the rest of the steam era. Portable engines were very simple with no gearing connected to the road wheels, no tanks were fitted, water was drawn to the engine from a barrel placed alongside, and the majority had single cylinders; however compound versions were produced. Charles Burrell & Sons produced portables in a range of sizes, these were rated by the company in NHP.
Around 670 portable engines were completed by the firm; however by the turn of the 20th century production of portables had slowed to a crawl as the company became more occupied with production of self-moving steam engines, and the final portable engine was sold in 1908.
The first steam tractor was produced by Charles Burrell & Sons in 1905 following changes in Parliamentary legislation which allowed one-man operation of traction engines on the public highway, engines however could weigh no more than five tons unladen and were limited to a top speed of 5 mph (8.0 km/h). The prototype steam tractor was a single-cylinder design but in 1906 a compound-cylinder version was produced, and this proved to be by far the most popular version with customers.
In 1908 the RAC organised a trial of competing makers' steam tractors to ascertain the best. Charles Burrell & Sons entered engine number 2932, a standard example of their range, but this engine was fitted with special patented wheels constructed of steel but with wooden blocks on the outer rim. After 22 days and 686 miles (1,104 km) Charles Burrell & Sons' entry was declared the winner. From this point onwards tractors produced by the firm became known as "Burrell Gold Medal Tractors".
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Charles Burrell & Sons also added showmans fittings or forward mounted cranes to their tractors. In all 11 were sold new to amusement caterers, with at a further 5 receiving showmans fittings by external companies and 6 engines were supplied new to the War Department with a 2-ton capacity crane fitted. In 1923 road legislation was changed again, and engines up to 71⁄4 tons were allowed to be operated on the road by a single operative, in response the company designed a larger steam tractor to service this new market, but it came too late for Charles Burrell & Sons, who by this time were in financial trouble and only three of this type of engine were completed. Charles Burrell & Sons' five-ton tractors found much favour with haulage contractors, quarry owners, timber hauliers, the military and amusement caterers, generally working with the use of a similar-sized trailer. After a production run of 20 years with over 200 engines completed, the final steam tractor was supplied in 1927.
Road locomotives
The first road locomotives started to emerge from the St Nicholas works in the late 1870s, with 14 engines specifically designed for the job of road haulage produced between 1878 and 1890. Following the changes to the law made by the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 the market for road locomotives expanded considerably. Charles Burrell & Sons Road Locomotives were slightly modified versions of their general-purpose engines to allow for faster rates of travel over long journeys. A general-purpose engine was designed to spend much of its life stationary, powering belt-driven equipment, whereas a road locomotive was constantly on the move, therefore subtle design differences were needed. These modifications included stronger drive shafts, gears and wheels; additional water-carrying capacity; generally a canopy was fitted; solid flywheels and additional platework around the engine's cylinder motion.
Loads hauled could be anything that could be carried in accompanying wagons, this included coal, bricks, stone, timber, grain etc. During the late 18th to early 19th century it was not uncommon for road locomotives to haul up to three fully laden wagons of 10 tons each, but as smaller steam engines became more common, the use of multiple wagons became infrequent – the use of road locomotives shifting to the movement of indivisible loads such as boilers, marine engine parts, railways engines or electrical equipment.
The largest engine produced by Charles Burrell & Sons was a Road Locomotive produced for the William Kerr of Mavisbank in Glasgow. Works number 3419, the engine was named "Clyde" and completed in October 1912. Clyde was a special order, built specifically for the haulage of enormous loads across the West of Scotland. Following many years of service the engine was sold at the end of the Second World War and driven away from Kerr's yard in Glasgow by a young man and his wife and never seen again - it is believed that the engine was broken-up shortly after in a Tyneside breakers yard.
Road rollers
Burrell's made their first road roller in 1891 which was supplied to a local contractor in close by Roudham, Norfolk. Product increased gradually until the turn of the century when there was regular demand for new machines. Burrell road rollers were a very conventional design and changed little in their total run of production. Five different sizes of rollers were available, 6 ton, 8 ton, 10 ton (class A), 12 ton (class B), 14 ton (class C) all available with additional extras, for example scarifiers which broke up the road surface prior to re-laying. In total the company built 384 road rollers in a variety of sizes and configurations with a number of engines converted to rollers at a later date. The final roller was despatched in 1929 to Mutford & Lothingland Rural District Council in Suffolk.
Ploughing engines
Charles Burrell started building ploughing engines from as early as 1860 in the very infancy of steam ploughing. These engines were built under license from John Fowler & Co who had patented the system of steam cultivation with two engines several years earlier. These early engines were very similar to Kitson and Hewitson design of ploughing engine with the exception of the drive to the rear wheels which was via chain. In addition Burrell produced, again under licence from Fowlers, a range of implements for cable ploughing including balance ploughs, turn-about cultivators and a patent small cultivator for use on light land with a single engine. Despite these early exploits and the company having extensive interests in producing engines for agricultural purposes Burrell paid scant attention to the construction of ploughing engines. All told the company produced 142 ploughing engines between 1860 and 1914 when the final pair of engines were completed for a customer in Germany. Early engines were often chain driven but later engines were gear driven speciality order engines for overseas customers.
Burrell's experimented with a system whereupon the winding drum was mounted vertically on the boiler, this had the advantage that external stresses placed on the boiler were much reduced over the standard means of mounting the drum on the underside of an engine's boiler. This system was first patented by two agricultural engineers from nearby Fakenham, Percival Everitt and William John Adams. By arrangement Burrells built ploughing engines incorporating the Everitt and Adams winding drum arrangement and engines were supplied either as a pair with left and right drums or singly with a double drum for use with supplied roundabout tackle. In 1881 Everitt and Adams transferred commercial rights for the system to Burrells for royalties of £5 per engine sold, this type of engine then became known as Universal Type Ploughing Engines. This pattern of side drum mounting was never widely adopted and the limited number of engines produced most were sold overseas.
A single set of Burrell ploughing have survived into preservation, works numbers 776 & 777 built for a customer in West Sussex and completed in June 1879. After several owners in preservation the engines passed to the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket Norfolk and occasionally appear at local events demonstrating steam ploughing.
Steam wagons
Charles Burrell produced their first steam wagon in 1901, however it appears that this experimental engine never went into product and was retained by the company for their own uses. It was not until 1911 that they made a serious attempt to enter what was now a growing market. The Burrell wagons generally followed the design followed by market leader Fodens of Sandbach and several revisions were produced when Fodens had established an improved design. Overall the company produced around 120 overtype steam wagons between 1911 and 1928. Two wagons supplied were fitted with a dynamo and full showman's fittings, works numbers 3843 "The Lion" and 3883 "Electra", in 1939 this second wagon was totally destroyed in a Nazi bombing raid over Plymouth. The company's steam wagons were never serious competitors to rivals Foden whose products were much better regarded and had cornered the market prior to Burrells entering somewhat late.
Other Products
Three miles south of Thetford is Euston Hall, in the grounds is a private watermill. The mill was designed to pump water and also grind corn. Being only a short distance from the factory an axle for the waterwheel was produced. This is the only known surviving waterwheel axle made by the firm.
Factory
The St Nicholas works was named after the long demolished church of St Nicholas which had stood nearby to where it was sited. The Thetford site where Burrell's designed and built their equipment occupied a 3-acre (12,000 m2) area close to the center of the town, next to the Little Ouse with the buildings divided by Minstergate Street. At its closure the works consisted of 15 separate parts each with a distinct purposes.
