Hoo festival to celebrate pioneering engineer

A festival is being held in Kent to celebrate the 200th birthday of a pioneering Victorian engineer who has become known as the father of the traction engine.

Thomas Aveling was born on 11 September 1824 and grew up on the Hoo Peninsula.

He was a co-founder of the world-famous Aveling & Porter company of Rochester (based in Strood) and was a former Mayor of Rochester.

The Thomas Aveling Society has invited musician and presenter Jools Holland, who lives locally, to open the free festival, which takes place on 7-8 September.

The presenter will lead a flower procession at 11:30BST on Saturday before unveiling a blue plaque in honour of the engineer.

A spokesperson for the festival said: "We do a small event every year, but nothing quite on this scale."

Mr Aveling grew up in Hoo and is buried in a local churchyard.

Widely considered the father of the mobile traction engine, he devised and built self-propelled steam engines and being dissatisfied with using horse power to move engines from place to place.

He became a major manufacturer of the machines, specialising in steam road rollers, which were exported all over the world.

Aveling and Porter continued to build traction engines until World War Two.

A keen yachtsman and sailing barge enthusiast, Thomas Aveling died on 7 March 1882 in Rochester, aged 57.

There will be refreshments and live music on all weekend at the festival.

The organisers advised that the event is being hosted on a recently harvested field so attendees should bare this in mind when choosing what to wear.

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