The Trust was established by Deed in December 2006, with the willing agreement of MAN Diesel Ltd (now MAN Diesel & Turbo UK Ltd), which acquired the Paxman business in 2000. The Foundation Trustees are Andrew Phillips, Richard Carr, Mike Gipson and Alex Walford. Andrew Phillips wrote the definitive history of Paxman up to 1922 and is preparing a second volume on the subsequent history of the company. Richard Carr, who maintains this website, and Mike Gipson, who looks after the Paxman photographic archive, each worked at Paxman for several years prior to retirement. Alex Walford spent his entire career with the company, mostly in the Regulateurs Europa subsidiary, and regularly assists in responding to technical enquiries. Each of the trustees has an active interest in preserving Paxman's history and contributes to the work of the Trust on a voluntary unpaid basis.
The primary object of the Paxman Archive Trust, as stated in the Trust Deed, is "To preserve and maintain for public consultation the historic papers, records, photographs, catalogues and other documents" of the Paxman business.
The PAT is a charitable trust but does not have the assets and income to be eligible to apply to the Charity Commissioners to become a Registered Charity. The Trust welcomes donations towards the costs of its work, which includes the maintenance of this website. Cheques should be made payable to the 'Paxman Archive Trust' and sent to The Treasurer, Paxman Archive Trust, c/o Nelmes, Mill Lane, Birch, Colchester CO2 0NG. Receipt of such donations will be acknowledged.
From time to time substantial quantities of Paxman archive material, including minute books, catalogues and correspondence, were deposited by the Company, on loan, with the Essex Record Office (ERO). This material, which is referenced under a number of accessions, was originally deposited with the Colchester Branch of the ERO. Sadly, a cost-saving exercise by Essex County Council resulted in the closure of the Colchester Branch in March 2007. The many Paxman documents held by the ERO are, therefore, no longer available for study at Colchester. Requests to view them should be made to the ERO at Chelmsford.
Catalogues of material held by the ERO can be viewed on the ERO's SEAX (Essex archives online) system. To see what Paxman material is available (excluding material not yet catalogued) go to http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk and do a search on Davey Paxman.
The Essex Record Office is at Wharf Road, Chelmsford, CM2 6YT. Telephone: 01245-244644.
Email: ero.enquiry@essexcc.gov.uk. Website: www.essexcc.gov.uk/ero
Under a Deed of Assignment dated 28th February 2007, MAN Diesel Ltd assigned to the Paxman Archive Trust ownership of all the material previously deposited by Paxman, on loan, with the ERO. (Other Paxman material deposited with the ERO by private individuals remains in their ownership or that of the ERO, depending on whether it was loaned or donated.)
A considerable quantity of additional archive material, including company records, catalogues and photographs, is currently in the personal custody of trustees of the PAT. It is the intention that this additional material should, in time, be deposited on loan with the Essex Record Office so that the complete collection is stored and accessible to the public, under controlled conditions, in one location.
Lower down this page are details of the PAT's very large photographic archive and its archive of engineering drawings.
The Paxman Archive Trust holds seven old Paxman (copy) order books covering the period from 24th April 1874 to 4th October 1934. These books contain only short summary details of the entries which were made in the order books proper. For each order entry there is generally an order number, the date the order was received or entered in the book, a brief description of what was ordered, the register or works number of the item, who it was for, where it was sent, and the date it was despatched from the factory. The records are not complete in every respect but do constitute an invaluable source.
Please note that, except for very early orders, there is an important difference between the order number and the works number, the latter being the one which appeared on the maker's plate. If the order or works number of a Paxman engine or boiler, or its year of manufacture and customer's name is sent (see feedback form), we can usually find the relevant entry and will be pleased to confirm details given in the order book. The records exist only in paper form and as there are literally thousands of entries we do not have the resources for doing a broader, less defined search which might span several years. The books and the orders they cover are summarised in the table below.
| Book | Range | Order/Contract No | Order Date | Reg or Works No |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | From: | 939 | 24 Apr 1874 | |
| To: | 3387 | 12 Oct 1889 | 5330 | |
| 2 | From: | 3388 | 14 Oct 1889 | 5331 |
| To: | 5779 | 31 May 1899 | 10339 | |
| 3 | From: | 5780 | 29 May 1899 | 10340 |
| To: | 8096 | 13 Sep 1906 | 14041 | |
| 4 | From: | 8097 | 13 Sep 1906 | 14042 |
| To: | 11549 | 02 Apr 1912 | 17578 | |
| 5 | From: | 11550 | 03 Apr 1912 | 17579 |
| To: | 14188 | 13 Dec 1919 | 20218 | |
| 6 | From: | 14189 | 15 Dec 1919 | 20219 |
| To: | 16733 | 21 Oct 1927 | 22763 | |
| 7 | From: | 16734 | 21 Oct 1927 | 22764 |
| To: | 18449 | 04 Oct 1934 | 24479 |
The original order books contained much more detailed descriptions of each order, in some cases including sketches. One of these, Boiler and Engine Order Book No 7 (not to be confused with Book 7 in the above table), has been preserved. Inside the front cover is a note by Frank Cansdale who was associated with the Order Department from 1897 to 1950. The note, dated January 1950, reads as follows:
"This Order Book No.7, follows on from Order Books numbered 1 to 6. (These earlier books are either lost or in too bad a condition for re-binding)
This Book has been preserved as a specimen of how the Orders were entered and the values at that period, July 1888-June 1890.
Order Books reached to No. 45, covering years 1890 to 1941 (50 years) but due to their bulkiness and condition into which they had deteriorated it was decided to scrap.
The last Order actually recorded in Order Books was Order No. 19816, April 1941, thereafter Record Cards were started and are now in use.
It must not be assumed that up to the year 1941, 19816 orders had been received, for many of the older orders covered a multiple of engines or boilers &c. as many as twelve engines or boilers being made to one Order Number.
Today, every product has a separate Order Number."
Full details of many orders have survived in microfilm form. To the best of our knowledge microfilm records are available for order number 2909 (c.1887) and subsequent orders placed up to the 1930s and possible the early 1940s. Viewing these records is dependent on the functioning of an aging microfilm reader but where there is a serious need for a copy of a particular order we are willing to investigate the possibility of supplying it.
Details of most orders for Davey Paxman's Vertical Heavy-Fuel-Oil engines and Heavy Duty Diesels are available on this site on the page Oil Engine Listing - 1920s & 1930s. The list covers nearly 500 engines and includes some of Paxman's first Vee form engines, the VRA and VRB, introduced in 1936 and 1937 respectively.
MAN Diesel & Turbo UK Ltd holds at its Colchester offices the diesel engine order books for the period January 1938 to the present day. Access is restricted for obvious reasons and is at the sole discretion of the Company. The details of some orders, particularly more recent ones, are of course confidential. As at 2005 there were six of these books:
Order Book 1. January 1938 to June 1947.
Order Book 2. June 1947 to August 1951.
Order Book 3. July 1951 to March 1961
Unnumbered March 1961 to September 1970
Unnumbered August 1970 to February 2002 (but excluding orders for the VP185 engine range)
Unnumbered All orders for the VP185 engine range
It will be seen from the above that one or more order books, covering the period October 1934 to December 1937, are missing. The book(s) has presumably been lost or destroyed but there is a possibility that microfilm records of the relevant orders have survived.
A Paxman order book which we found in December 2005 contains details of boiler orders received between 1940 and 1965.
Trustees of the Paxman Archive Trust (PAT) were fortunate in being able to rescue the Company's collection of thousands of photographic negatives which were destined for the rubbish tip. The collection of approximately 11,000 glass-plate negatives and 4,000 celluloid negatives is a photographic record of Paxman products, manufacturing facilities, events and people from the late 1890s to the 1960s. Arrangements are being made currently to deposit the glass-plate and celluloid negatives with the Essex Record Office for long-term storage and preservation. However, it has been agreed with the ERO that all enquiries regarding the relevant photographic images should be handled by the Paxman Archive Trust. Advice on making such enquiries appears below.
Mike Gipson, one of the PAT trustees, has undertaken the colossal task of scanning all the above-mentioned negatives and photographs as digital images in JPG format. A truly phenomenal achievement for which we owe Mike a great debt of gratitude. The archive is thus preserved for posterity and images can be made available for study and publication when required. Mike has also undertaken the considerable task of creating an electronic 'Master Index' of the photographic archive, in Excel spreadsheet format. The index is based on two surviving Paxman photograph registers, about which Mike has prepared the useful notes below. It is recommended that these notes be read before viewing the spreadsheet. The latter is available as a download from this page, as explained below in the Spreadsheet Master Index section.
The PAT's image archive also includes photographs from other sources, such as albums and catalogues.
Two major registers of photographs and negatives were kept by the Company. These have survived and are now in the Paxman Archive Trust collection. Mike Gipson's explanatory notes on the registers and their entries are as follows:
The register is handwritten and, although entitled 'Nos 500 onwards', actually contains 23 records for numbers prior to 500. It runs from the year 1898 to 1955.
Numbers run from nominally 500 to 1,199, after which they suddenly jump to 2,000. The way the numbers are entered in the register suggests this was a simple case of numbering error by whoever allocated the numbers. No later notes accompany these omissions, nor is there any attempt to re-use the missing numbers later on in the book. The numbers run up to 3,005.
For entries 500 to 915 the identifying number is called the 'Negative number'. From 916 onwards it is called merely 'Number'.
Details entered under 3,006 to 3,048 are crossed out and the sequence starts again at 3,006 on the next page. From this second 3,006 entry the numbers run to 5,618, at which point the book ends. From the second 3,006 entry, a second column appears which is headed 'Negative number'; the first number column is still headed 'Number'.
The register has two numbering columns: the first headed 'Index Number', the second 'Negative Number'
The register starts from number 1 in the 'Negative Number' column and is very sparse until number 500. Where details have been entered for entries prior to 500, they are more or less the same as those appearing in the 'Blue Book'.
Details for entries 500 to 1,020 are not so sketchy and again follow the 'Blue Book'. The descriptions, however, are less detailed than in the 'Blue Book'.
From 1,020 to 2,457 the lines are blank. However, from 2,458 virtually full details return. This carries on up to 3,041 when again the lines are blank until negative number 3,103 is reached, at which point this numbering system stops.
NOTE: It appears that these numbers up to 3103 are the same series as in the 'Blue Book'.
Following a blank page a new numbering system starts. This again has the two columns 'Index Number' and 'Negative Number'. Here the entries start at number 1 in the 'Index Number' column. The date of number 1 is 1938-9. The details are full, including the negative numbers.
This continues right through to index number 2,089 (circa 1947) when the column 'Index Number' stops consecutive numbering and changes to dates. The Negative Numbers continue and are consecutive. This system of numbering now continues through the rest of the book until negative number 8,035 (circa 1958) when, almost at the end of the book, it finishes with a double underlining and a note saying: -
This system now discontinued 4-9-58. N.B. separate registers started as under
a. Engines
b. BGE (i.e. Boiler & General Engineering, including filtration plant.)
c. Research
d. General
Three of the above four registers, which were started in 1958, have survived and are held by the Trust.
Engines (E): The register runs to 1979 but the negatives are not available. Prints of a limited number of the photographs recorded in the register have survived, in binders of photographs previously used by the Engine Sales Department. Mike Gipson is currently scanning these prints as JPG images and creating an electronic index in spreadsheet form. We plan to make the index available here as a download when it is ready.
BGE (B): Neither the register nor the relevant negatives appear to have survived. As in the case of 'E' above, a limited number of prints in punched-leaf binders have survived. Some pictures go up to the 1970s. Mike intends to scan all these as JPG images and to create an electronic index which will be made available here in due course.
Research (R): Although the register has survived, the whereabouts of the relevant photographs is unknown, if they still exist. They would probably be of very limited interest, being mainly of component failures. There is no plan to create an electronic version of this register.
General (G): The register runs to 1976. Because of the large number of surviving negatives, it is impractical to scan all of them as JPG images. Individual images can be scanned and supplied on request. An electronic version of the index is available as an Excel spreadsheet download below.
Most of the glass plates and negatives are filed in individual protective paper sleeves. Usually there is a handwritten number on the sleeve. This number was used as the identifier for image files when the negative were scanned as digital images.
On photographs taken from photograph albums, etc., the number is normally written in one corner of the picture.
At the time the negatives were being scanned, it was unclear whether the numbers on the protective sleeves related to the numbering system used in the 'Blue Book', the Index Numbers used in the leather-bound register or the Negative Numbers in that register. As explained above, the leather-bound register also contains two different systems of numbering. Consequently a great deal of work was involved in establishing the correct identities of pictures.
MasterPhotoIndex.xls, the spreadsheet file containing Mike Gipson's Master Index, was scanned for viruses before being uploaded to the server. However, accessing or downloading the file is entirely at your own risk and no liability can be accepted for any loss or damage arising. To download the file, which is approx 2.1MB, right click on this link - MasterPhotoIndex.xls - and save to disk.
The Master Index is a consolidation of the two main original registers described above, together with additions and amendments. The 'Blue Book Register' worksheet reproduces entries up to 1943. The 'Leather Bound Register' worksheet starts with entries dated 1938/39. To avoid potential confusion arising from the different numbering systems and duplicated numbering in the original registers, entries in this master register are colour-coded.
G-PhotoIndex.xls, the spreadsheet file containing the index for 'General' photographs, was scanned for viruses before being uploaded to the server. However, accessing or downloading the file is entirely at your own risk and no liability can be accepted for any loss or damage arising. To download the file, which is approx 323KB, right click on this link - G-PhotoIndex.xls - and save to disk.
Individual images are available on request, at the Trust's discretion and subject to observance of the Trust's copyright. The Trust makes modest charges for this service. Charges are based on the amount of work and costs involved in supplying the requested image(s), and include a donation to the Trust's ongoing work. We would ask that requests are kept within modest limits as the Trustees are unpaid volunteers with other commitments.
Requests for images should be submitted initially using the feedback form on the contact page. Please make sure your email address is entered accurately and provide the information listed below. It is essential to quote ALL identifiers, so that the relevant photograph(s) can be correctly identified and supplied.
At our discretion, we may be able to supply one or two preview images, which will be smaller sized, compressed and watermarked versions, for approval before an order is confirmed. Images will only be despatched, whether as email attachments or on CD, on receipt of full payment.
The Paxman Archive Trust holds a collection of Paxman engineering drawings, some in the form of 'Barcro' negatives and others on microfilm. Mike Gipson has now scanned many of these film records of drawings as JPG images. Listed below are collections of the JPG images, each available from the Trust on a CD, at modest cost. (The links below are to sections of this site with information about the relevant machinery, not about the images.)
The PAT also has film records of drawings for:
If you have a specific need for images of drawings for Paxman-Lentz or Heavy-Fuel-Oil engines, please enquire.
Unfortunately very few drawings for Paxman portable steam engines and steam traction engines have survived.
Requests for, and enquiries about, images of drawings should be submitted initially using the feedback form on the contact page. Please ensure that your email address is accurately entered and provide the following information:
Page updated: 19 APR 2011