Members of the list may like to know that I have today received notification
of the death of Russell Bayles, on 17th February at his home in Barrow,
Chester. He was 94 years of age.
I knew Russell from long back, at the time he lived at Helsby and when I was
getting together a pictorial record of his old Cornish mining scenes, a
project which ultimately ended up as two illustrated volumes which were
edited by John Trounson ( for Moorland Publishing Co). A great steam engine
enthusiast, he latterly enjoyed many weekends doing restoration works at
Queen's Mill in Lancashire and was a leading light in the Dorothea
Restoration Engineers in their early days - I believe he was their financial
director at one time. His in-depth knowledge of steam pumping machinery was
called upon many times by Denys Barton when the latter was writing his
numerous and wonderful volumes of Cornish mining activities. He is credited
for his help in most of Barton's volumes.
He donated much of his accumulated material on steam and mining to the local
record office some time ago. His cremation is at Chester Crematorium on 2nd
March at 3.00 p.m.
Dickie Bird.
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