Frederick Savage

Its been a gloomy week or two in Norfolk so this weekend I was trawling through some old photos looking for something that I hadn't already posted on the Norfolk Corners Instagram. I put my lockdown collection of lamppost photos to one side and turned my attention to the smaller pile of remaining pics. I stopped when I came to this beautifully crafted (if slightly uncomfortable looking) seat in Kings Lynn's Tuesday Market Place.

I photographed it after we investigated the legend of the Witch's Heart last autumn because I liked the way that the rain had settled on it and the diffracted reflection of the late afternoon sun on its brushed steel surface. Now that I looked again though I noticed that the glyphs etched out of the lower band of the back rest represented the pole mounted gallopers that carry you round on traditional carousel rides. Very apt for the Tuesday Market Place which hosts the Kings Lynn Mart for the fortnight beginning on Valentine's Day each year. I googled the name in the upper band presuming it to be the creator of the seat:

Frederick Savage (engineer) - Wikipedia

Frederick Savage (3 March 1828 - 27 April 1897) was an English engineer and inventor. Savage is most notable as a chief innovator in the field of steam powered fairground machinery and later as mayor of Kings Lynn, Norfolk. He was the inventor of a system for running fairground carousels using a horizontally-mounted steam engine at its centre.

"Did you know that Frederick Savage (the name on the bench in Lynn's Tuesday Market Place) was a fairground ride inventor?" I asked the Norfolk Corners editor when I next spoke to her.

"Yes," she replied.

Damn! The editor (my wife) really knew her onions. Looking at the bench again we can see that the central hub represents the steam engine. As someone who suffers from motion sickness, I made a mental note to never sit on this seat just in case it starts spinning round.

Frederick started life in Hevingham in 1828 and faced early struggles when his father William was deported to Tasmania after being charged with poaching. Without William's income Frederick started to look beyond the farm labouring jobs that his family had tended towards to try to make ends meet. He found a job with Thomas Cooper of East Dereham who was a whitesmith and machine maker. Frederick's lack of early education had left him illiterate but he learned quickly under Cooper before moving on to Kings Lynn to work with Charles Willett.

When Willett retired in 1850 Savage founded his own business at the age of 22, initially manufacturing and repairing farm tools. His experience as a machine maker, his engineering ingenuity and his entrepeneurial spirit gave him the inspiration to develop steam powered agricultural tools for farmers to exploit the large areas of fenland that were being reclaimed with steam powered drainage pumps. It wasn't long before his innovation saw him diversify further still into steam engines to power fairground rides such as the carousels that the steel bench celebrates.

Lynn Museum

Frederick's success arose partly from his ambitious creativity but also from the accuracy of his engineering. I recommend reading A History of Savages published by Lynn Museum if you are interested in finding out more about him and his creations. A History of Savages describes how sand was critical to the sort of precision that Frederick relied on. It was used in several stages of the process for casting and cooling. Nearby Leziate started quarrying high grade silica sand around 1881 and though the sand was mainly used in the manufacture of glass, I wonder if Savage also took advantage of such a valuable local resource.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Evelyn Simak and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The quality of Frederick's creations helped his company 'Savages' expand rapidly employing artists as well as engineers to add the vivid colour and detail to the fairground attractions that made his name. These machines were exported all over the world and much imitated then and since so they feel familiar to all of us. A History of Savages quotes Savages' 1902 Catalogue for Roundabouts:

we have patented and placed upon the market all the principal novelties that have delighted the many thousands of pleasure seekers at home and abroad.

Each Norfolk Corner comes with its own unbidden, unnecessary and probably unheeded music recommendation. The Frederick Savage seat breaks new ground here by inspiring two (count 'em) recommended tunes: Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd and Carousel by East India Youth. A right couple of party bangers!

Location: Tuesday Market Pl, King's Lynn PE30, UK

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