Priestman Excavators
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:08 pm
Here is a thread dedicated to that other great British excavator manufacturer which is also sadly no more Priestman Brothers of Hull.
The company was first established amazingly in 1873 and their early products were winches and grabs.
One of their first excavators was designed in 1920 it was a wheel mounted ditching grab which was towed & powered by a crawler tractor, the No 1 Grab Ditcher was first produced in 1921.
That was the start of a very successful company who went on to produce many different models of excavators including cable style machines like the Tiger, Wolf, Lion, etc through to the early 1960s when they marketed Yumbo Hydraulic machines like the Y35 & Y45.
They developed their own partly hydraulic hydro Cub in 1963 and then in 1965 the fully hydraulic Cub based Beaver (See Photos)
In 1967 the highly successful Mustang range was introduced starting with the Wheeled Mustang 90 over the the following 20 years the range consisted of nine different models.
In the mid nineties a rang of four mini excavators were offered built by Takeuchi of Japan they were marketed as Mini-Mustangs.
In 1987 Priestman were bought by the Sanderson group and three new Mustangs were offered the 2-12, 2-15, & 2-18 models.
Sadly the company was closed in 1990, another great British company gone to the wall.
I always thought from an operators perspective that the Priestman machines were far superior to those offered by Hymac but for some reason they always seemed to stay in Hymacs shadow.
Anyway enough of my rambling on here !! I hope you enjoyed my "pocket" history of Priestman and so here are some photos of some of the mentined machines starting with an old 1966 Beaver that I found on a farm here in Devon last year.
The company was first established amazingly in 1873 and their early products were winches and grabs.
One of their first excavators was designed in 1920 it was a wheel mounted ditching grab which was towed & powered by a crawler tractor, the No 1 Grab Ditcher was first produced in 1921.
That was the start of a very successful company who went on to produce many different models of excavators including cable style machines like the Tiger, Wolf, Lion, etc through to the early 1960s when they marketed Yumbo Hydraulic machines like the Y35 & Y45.
They developed their own partly hydraulic hydro Cub in 1963 and then in 1965 the fully hydraulic Cub based Beaver (See Photos)
In 1967 the highly successful Mustang range was introduced starting with the Wheeled Mustang 90 over the the following 20 years the range consisted of nine different models.
In the mid nineties a rang of four mini excavators were offered built by Takeuchi of Japan they were marketed as Mini-Mustangs.
In 1987 Priestman were bought by the Sanderson group and three new Mustangs were offered the 2-12, 2-15, & 2-18 models.
Sadly the company was closed in 1990, another great British company gone to the wall.
I always thought from an operators perspective that the Priestman machines were far superior to those offered by Hymac but for some reason they always seemed to stay in Hymacs shadow.
Anyway enough of my rambling on here !! I hope you enjoyed my "pocket" history of Priestman and so here are some photos of some of the mentined machines starting with an old 1966 Beaver that I found on a farm here in Devon last year.