IN February 1951, a 40-ton boiler, 15ft high and nearly 30ft long, toppled off its six-wheel trailer.
The trailer was travelling along Suffield Road, High Wycombe, and came to rest within a couple of yards of the shop front of Barlow's, on the corner of Suffield Road and West End Street.
The footpath's kerb stopped the massive unit rolling into the front of the shop.
The boiler, too big to go through the main shopping centre of High Wycombe, was being escorted by the police motor patrol to bypass the centre of the town by way of Suffield Road and Desborough Avenue. It was on its way from Colchester to Newport.
The boiler came off the trailer on the sharp incline near West End Street. No one was injured.
Traffic was diverted and the boiler was shored up to await the arrival of heavy lifting equipment.
