Old Priestmans Revisited

I was overwhelmed by the response to last week’s blog post featuring the old Priestman Mustang at rest in Derbyshire, the message box was rammed with people asking for more material, and indeed many of our younger, curious readers, had never even heard of the now long-gone British brand.

I thrive on bringing you original and interesting content, so those messages really inspired me to dig deep into the Digger Man Blog archives for more Priestman photos, and automatically lead me to a visit I made to the VET (Vintage Excavator Trust) in Threlkeld back in 2014, where I stumbled across a number of old girls, for which the Cumbrian quarry is their long-term home, preserved for future generations to see.

Priestman Bros of Hull were well known for producing machines named after wild animals, for instance, the Tiger, Wolf, Lion, Panther, Bison and even the Otter crane/draglines, some smaller examples took the name Cub and the later Beaver, with various upgrade versions along the way.

Many of the Priestman examples displayed at the VET belong to private collections, and date back as far as 1942 like this Cub Mk III in 8 cubic yard bucket, dragline configuration. Looking like a garden shed on tracks, this was probably a major step forward in earthmoving technology back in those days.

Can you imagine spending a 12-hour shift operating one of these, it would certainly be a good workout for the operator, with a vast array of pedals and manual levers to pull and push, absolutely incredible and a credit to those old guys who used to run them. No Air-Con, coolbox, Bluetooth radio, or mobile phone connectivity in these babies! 

A sister Cub machine from that same era, was parked close by, this example features a skimmer bucket, once again a rope-controlled method that would pull the bucket, mounted on a runner rail, along the ground to literally skim earth off the ground until the bucket was full, snapped ropes were a common occurrence I’m told.

This Cub V was in backhoe form and had a more familiar look to it, although still entirely rope controlled. By today’s standards it was still very primitive. But this example is in superb condition for its age.

This Cub VI dragline is still sporting the corporate colour scheme of British Waterways, and such machines were once commonly seen at work keeping our rivers and canals clean and free flowing, something that should still be undertaken on a regular basis in this day and age.

And finally, we return to a really nice example of the machine featured in last week’s Priestman, the Mustang 120 Mk III. I believe this machine was lovingly restored by its owner.  

Checkout this Priestman Lion dragline in action in the Netherlands.