By John Knapton
The Pudsey Roller was bequeathed to the children of Pudsey by Councillor Sir Walter Ward in February 1959 and was played on by countless hundreds of children and their friends and relations up until its removal on safety grounds in 1990.
Some of these children, now grown up, have told us they used to drive it around the park after school!
These kids would have played on it, in it and climbed all over it, some falling off and hurting themselves and then climbing back on to carry on playing on it, lest they would lose face!
A number have also told us they used to get stuck in the chimney, whereby their friends would take great delight in running round to the fire station and getting the brigade out to go and rescue them!
The roller is now being restored to a working condition and will return to Pudsey in the fullness of time – not to go back into the park but to be on display somewhere locally so the parents and grandparents can tell their children that: “I used to play on the Pudsey Roller”.
The Friends of Pudsey Roller (www.pudsey-roller.co.uk, e-mail pudseyroller@yahoo.co.uk) is raising funds to enable this to happen.
The steam roller has recently had a new boiler. The Friends are now raising funds for new nuts and bolts for the wheels – these are very specific size and type, and cost £18.75 each.
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Being brought up in Swinnow we spent many happy hours in the park and of course the “Steam” Roller. ( Of course it didn’t move) .
It doesn’t keep me awake at night but I was told it was removed cos it was stuffed with asbestos!
Spent many hours in my childhood playing on the steam engine in Pudsey park , great to hear it’s being restored to working condition.
I was driver number 1 of this fantastic machine from 1979 to 1983
Carl