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When we first moved to Newbury in 1992, on the Hambridge Road in town was Plenty & Son, makers of diesel engines and pumps - and outside their works was a large steam engine (where it stands to this day - by the magic of Google street view you can see it here).

Founded in 1800 at the Eagle Ironworks in the centre of town, in later years Plenty specialised in marine steam engines.

At the other end of the scale, this must have been one of the smallest engines they ever made - we're told it drove a refrigeration plant at a local factory.

It's spent the last forty years in a private collection less than ten miles from where it was built - we suspect that, travelling back to our works last week may have been the first time it had ever left Berkshire!

We rate it about 70% complete - a challenging, although entirely doable restoration project. The missing parts mostly have the matching component on the other side from which to cast a copy - top cylinder cover, eccentric strap, valve chest & cover - or replicate from stock material - valve spindle, crosshead and connecting rod.

Not a weekend job, however it would produce a handsome engine of manageable size - the thing stands at just under four feet tall, we'd put its weight at around eight hundredweight.