Intermat 24

News

Digging deep into construction machinery news

Old Sanderson era Priestman Discovered

by Nick Drew  |  Thu 14 May 2020

Old Sanderson era Priestman Discovered

As I’m sure many of our readers will be aware, Priestman were a long-established excavator manufacturer based in Hull making their first dragline excavator in 1924. In the latter years they were big rivals of fellow British manufacturer Hymac in the hydraulic excavator market, but sadly, both brands never invested in R&D to counter the threat of the import of Japanese machines, whose reliability and leak free hydraulic systems eventually saw them both off from the marketplace.

In 1985 Priestman was purchased by the Sanderson Group the forklift manufacturer from Skegness. In 1987 the company launched 3 new improved Mustang models which now sported the Sanderson yellow livery instead of the old familiar Priestman orange. The new machines were the 2-12, 2-15 and 2-18 models, which as the numbers suggest were of 12, 15 and 18 tonnes in operating weight.

A year later another model the 2-11 was added to the range, however by this time the writing was already on the wall for the manufacturer and by the 1990’s they had ceased production. As such not that many of these 2- generation models were produced they are really quite rare in the wider scheme of things, that’s why I was delighted to receive these shots of this Perkins powered 2-18 model that is still in use to this day on a farm in Essex.

When travel restrictions are finally removed, when ever that might be, my intention is to visit the machine for a retro-test drive opportunity for Earthmovers Magazine, something I am really looking forward too, definitely something to look forward too.

In this shot above from the archives we see a brand new Priestman 2-18 on the demo plot at the old SED Site Equipment Demonstration event at Whipsnade in 1987.

The Digger Man Blog thanks Brian for sharing these photos and I look forward to catching up with you, hopefully in the not too distant future.      

Loads more