Stephen Close's Steam Engine, 1860
13/11/2009 Steve AustinRansome & Sims Engineers Steam Engine 1852
Serial number 454 - patent number 3323, registered 7 July 1852, and manufactured at Ipswich, England in 1860. It was recovered by Norm Brayshaw, and Tom Close, from the Hira area (on the way to Nelson) on 12 February 1969. It is believed to be the oldest Ransome & Sims engine in the world. The engine is now in the collection of the Vintage Farm Machinery Society, here in Brayshaw Heritage Park, Blenheim.
It was used for milling forest in the area partly now known as The Brook, in Nelson, at the base of Dun Mountain. Other milled areas may have also included what was once known as The Wood in Nelson.
The steam engine belonged to my namesake, Great Great Grandfather Stephen Close. He arrived with his wife, Anne Jane, in Nelson, on the Mary Anne, in 1842. They are buried at Wakapuaka Cemetery, Nelson.
Like his father, Stephen Close was also a sawyer, by the mid 1850s he had made enough money to buy a farm at Hira. This is still farmed by my family.
Stephen Close had four daughters, Thomas Austin married one daughter, Anne Jane Close (b. 1852), an early photo of her is in the Brown Collection of negatives at Nelson Provincial Museum.
Thomas Austin's sons, Edward Harold Austin (Ned), and Norman Campbell Austin were the Head Shepherds (one succeeded the other) at Kekerengu Station, at the outbreak of WWI. Edward Harold Austin later became the manager of The Bolton, a remote station in the Awatere. My Grandfather (Lewis George Austin, and his brothers (Edward Harold and Norman Campbell), also worked, mustering at Molesworth Station. Stephen Close's legacy has special Marlborough connections.
Prepared by Steve Austin, Chief Executive, Marlborough Museum and Marlborough Historical Society Inc, 2009.
About Steve
Steve joined the Museum in 2006 to lead the Museum into its next phase of development. Steve graduated in Art History, Music and History. He has a first class honors degree in History.
After lecturing at Christchurch College of Education for ten years, Steve worked in Wellington at the City Gallery before moving to The Dowse, and later the Nelson Provincial Museum.
Steve is currently working on two books. The first is on early Chinese settlers in New Zealand. His other project is on New Zealand photographer Thelma Kent, who was active in the 1930s.