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See Homepage. This page: An interesting steam-powered commercial vehicle photographed in Southport.
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"Standard" Sentinel steam lorry, with trailer.

Margaret was kind enough to email over some early photographs from a family album, all with a motoring theme to them. Here it's the turn of a commercial vehicle to feature in the gallery, built by the Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. The vehicle is a very early Sentinel steam lorry, registered AW 1643, complete with its enclosed trailer. The AW series relates to Shropshire, or Salop as it's often known, the home of the Sentinel factory.
Apparently this photograph was taken some way north of Shropshire though, as Margaret says that the location is quite possibly Lord Street in Southport, and one of the men stood alongside the lorry could well be a distant relative of hers. Certainly the signwriting on the lorry and the trailer relate to a Removals and Storage business in Southport, the company name being C (Charles) F Chinnery Limited.
(Please click the thumbnail to view full-size image.)
A Sentinel steam lorry
The AW registration series ran until 1921, so the Sentinel pre-dates this period. The style of the cab is also quite early, and looks a lot more primitive than later variants such as the S4, with their fully-glazed cabs and pneumatic rubber tyres. In fact this could well be one of the very earliest of Sentinel's steam-driven lorries, known as the "Standard" Sentinel, the open "C" cab certainly looks very similar. In 1926 the re-styled Super Sentinel was introduced, again with a "C" cab but of slightly different design. Many of these early models were returned to the factory for routine maintenance, and while they were in the shop upgraded to pneumatic rather than solid rubber tyres, affording a much more comfortable ride. Therefore finding a period shot of an early example like this, still on solid tyres, is a great find.

More information on this Sentinel

Peter dropped me a line shortly after putting this page live, with some extra information (thanks Peter):
The steam lorry belonged to C (Charles) F Chinnery. He was born in 1860 Ireland and during the 1890's to early 90's he was a house furnisher, cabinet maker and upholsterer. The business was at 293 Lord Street, Southport Tel: 178.
In 1930 he had a separate removal business in Aughton Rd Southport. It was possibly there earlier but I haven't looked at all the archive records.
His eldest son Reginald, left home to take up a trade as an apprentice upholsterer in London.
Other pages relating to these steam lorries include this view of a later, restored Sentinel seen at Astle Park steam fair, while parts for Sentinel steam lorries can be freely traded on this page in the classifieds section.
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