Vintage steamroller to return to Wyndham Park in Grantham for 100-year celebration

A vintage steamroller will feature in a 100-year celebration event.

The Wyndham Park steamroller is returning for the Grantham park’s 100 year event from Friday, July 12, until Sunday, July 14.

The steamroller is making its triumphant return to the park after it was removed in 1999, and it looks to be a popular feature in the three-day event.

A spokesperson for the Friends of Wyndham Park said: “People are talking about it returning already.

“We are celebrating the last 100 years of the park, not just the First World War and the town war memorial, the steamroller was also a part of it.

“We are hoping it will steam roll as that’s what it’s meant to do. There will be people who have never seen it.

“I also think there will also be mums and dads who used to climb on it as children and now they will bring their children to see it.”

The steamroller - an eight-tonne Aveling Porter roller - was first built in 1922 in Rochester, Kent.

It was then gifted to the town by Eddison Plant in 1963 at the end of its working life.

It was placed in Wyndham Park for children to play on. It was placed in the park for 36 years until a child was injured after they fell from it.

The roller has since been restored in Swindon.

The Wyndham Park 100-year event, organised by the Wyndham Park Forum and the Lincolnshire Fire Aid, will be funded by £19,166 from South Kesteven District Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

It has cost £2,000 to bring the roller back to Wyndham Park, however this is not part of the allocated funding.