By Jane Ellis, of Leeds Camera Club
The roads of West Leeds echoed on Easter Tuesday with the evocative whistle of a 10-ton steam road roller, as Wallis & Steeven’s Roller no 7941 “Advance” came out of retirement for the day.
She steamed as slowly as her grand old age would allow from her home in Bramley to New Farnley Cricket Club where she was the star attraction at a party staged to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of her owners, John Knapton.
She was built in Basingstoke, Hampshire and worked hard for York Corporation rolling the streets there for nearly thirty years, as the City of York no. 3 Roller.
She was sold in 1955 to W & J Glossop Ltd, a West Riding road surface-dressing firm, but continued working in and around the York area until laid up in 1965.
Purchased for preservation in 1968, she has been fully restored and made road-worthy, complying with modern regulations and only emerging occasionally for steam rallies.
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