Scrap steam engine to go on show

The engine would normally be belted up to a threshing machine

A 19th Century steam engine sold as scrap in the 1950s has been restored.

The rare engine was one of the first objects collected by the University of Reading's Museum of English Rural Life (Merl) when it was founded in 1951.

The 1877 single cylinder horse-drawn engine was bought from a farm near Banbury, Oxfordshire, for the scrap metal price of just £3 a tonne.

Recently restored over several months, the engine will go on show from 23 May at the London Road museum.

Roy Brigden, from Merl, said: "There are few steam engines left in original condition as many of them are privately owned and restored to full working order so they can be taken to steam rallies.

"This horse-driven steam engine represents a Victorian technology that was fast disappearing in the 1950s.

"When the museum took it into its collection, it was probably considered to be quite old-fashioned at the time, but its age and the fact that it is close to its original condition makes it even more rare today."

Once on show, the engine will be belted up to a threshing machine drum to demonstrate how it would have been used in a farm.