GWRdriver
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Cherry Hinds Hill was born in Malvern, Worcestershire, England in 1932 to a family whose principle business was agricultural machinery specifically made for hop-picking. Her father, George A. Hinds, held numerous patents for designs and improvements to machinery and from 1934 was a principal in the firm of McConnell-Hinds, Ltd, makers of the world's most innovative if not best hop-picking machinery. His hobby, when he found time for it, was model engineering and he maintained a modest workshop on the grounds of his home in the Malvern Hills and he welcomed his daughter's interest in metalworking and mentored her.
Cherry eventually followed her father into the family engineering business as a machinery designer. Mr. Hinds died in the late 1950s and Cherry continued to live at the family home and put the contents of the workshop to use. She decided to try her hand at building a model using her father's tools and the model she chose was a Stuart Turner No.9 horizontal engine for which she was eventually awarded a bronze medal (3rd in class) at the International Model Engineering Exhibition.
By 1964 her 3/4" scale Allchin Royal Chester traction engine from the design of W. J. Hughes, had gained a silver medal (2nd in class) and one marvelous model followed another and she is now considered one of the best model engineers who ever lived. Much of that distinction comes from the fact that her later models have won every competition they were entered in and the only one she ever entered was the Model Engineer Exhibition. As of 2007 she had won the Championship Cup (best of show) and related 1st-place awards a record of eight times.
The ME Championship Cup competitions are judged based upon a 100 points system which awards points for, among other things, faithfulness to prototype, complexity and rarity of the prototype, modeling difficulty, and finish. In her favor she began to make a practice of modeling vehicles for which no model design, no drawings, and no castings existed, and in at least one instance no prototype documentation other than an ancient engraving of the original machine existed. In addition to exhibiting superb craftsmanship, her models win out on points for rarity, complexity, difficulty, and to some extent obscurity. There may very well be other models which equal hers in faithfulness to prototype and workmanship (one of which would be Dr. Bradbury-Winter's locomotive COMO) but which in a competition can't overcome the preponderance of points won on rarity and complexity.
It should also be noted that her building progress is slow. There are now typically years between models because there is so much work, from initial research to painting, in one of her models. She no longer enters her models in competition but they are exhibited in the ME Exhibition "Loan" section, along with previous Championship cup winners, and since 2002, as they are finished, her models have gone to a permanent collection held by the Library & Archives, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London.
Among the models held by the IMechE Archives are:
Merryweather 'Fire King' Engine 1966
Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd Showman's Road Locomotive 1969
Aveling & Porter Road Roller 1969
Wallis & Steevens 'Simplicity' Road Roller 1979
Wallis & Steevens 'Advance' Road Roller 1979
James Taylor 'Steam Elephant' Traction Engine 1983
Savage Centre Engine 1984
William Batho Road Roller 1986
Law & Downie Traction Engine 1990
Gellerat Steam Road Roller 1995
Andrew Barclay Traction Engine and Winding Engines 1998
Gilletts and Allatt Traction Engine 2001
Cherry Hill married late in life and immigrated to the USA and since the 1990s has lived in the Orlando Florida area and continues to build. Through a mutual friend and former director of the London SMEE (Society of Model and Experimental Engineers) I was informed that Ms Hill does not engage in correspondence nor does she receive visitors at her workshop because she feels that at age 80 she has a limited number of productive modeling years remaining and many projects yet to do. Unlike most notable figures in model engineering Ms Hill's writing has been limited to a few articles or interviews and has rarely written at length about her models or model building for the same reason, she feels her time is best spent in modeling.
In 2000 she was the recipient of an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for excellence in services rendered to the Empire in the area of model engineering.
Cherry eventually followed her father into the family engineering business as a machinery designer. Mr. Hinds died in the late 1950s and Cherry continued to live at the family home and put the contents of the workshop to use. She decided to try her hand at building a model using her father's tools and the model she chose was a Stuart Turner No.9 horizontal engine for which she was eventually awarded a bronze medal (3rd in class) at the International Model Engineering Exhibition.
By 1964 her 3/4" scale Allchin Royal Chester traction engine from the design of W. J. Hughes, had gained a silver medal (2nd in class) and one marvelous model followed another and she is now considered one of the best model engineers who ever lived. Much of that distinction comes from the fact that her later models have won every competition they were entered in and the only one she ever entered was the Model Engineer Exhibition. As of 2007 she had won the Championship Cup (best of show) and related 1st-place awards a record of eight times.
The ME Championship Cup competitions are judged based upon a 100 points system which awards points for, among other things, faithfulness to prototype, complexity and rarity of the prototype, modeling difficulty, and finish. In her favor she began to make a practice of modeling vehicles for which no model design, no drawings, and no castings existed, and in at least one instance no prototype documentation other than an ancient engraving of the original machine existed. In addition to exhibiting superb craftsmanship, her models win out on points for rarity, complexity, difficulty, and to some extent obscurity. There may very well be other models which equal hers in faithfulness to prototype and workmanship (one of which would be Dr. Bradbury-Winter's locomotive COMO) but which in a competition can't overcome the preponderance of points won on rarity and complexity.
It should also be noted that her building progress is slow. There are now typically years between models because there is so much work, from initial research to painting, in one of her models. She no longer enters her models in competition but they are exhibited in the ME Exhibition "Loan" section, along with previous Championship cup winners, and since 2002, as they are finished, her models have gone to a permanent collection held by the Library & Archives, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London.
Among the models held by the IMechE Archives are:
Merryweather 'Fire King' Engine 1966
Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd Showman's Road Locomotive 1969
Aveling & Porter Road Roller 1969
Wallis & Steevens 'Simplicity' Road Roller 1979
Wallis & Steevens 'Advance' Road Roller 1979
James Taylor 'Steam Elephant' Traction Engine 1983
Savage Centre Engine 1984
William Batho Road Roller 1986
Law & Downie Traction Engine 1990
Gellerat Steam Road Roller 1995
Andrew Barclay Traction Engine and Winding Engines 1998
Gilletts and Allatt Traction Engine 2001
Cherry Hill married late in life and immigrated to the USA and since the 1990s has lived in the Orlando Florida area and continues to build. Through a mutual friend and former director of the London SMEE (Society of Model and Experimental Engineers) I was informed that Ms Hill does not engage in correspondence nor does she receive visitors at her workshop because she feels that at age 80 she has a limited number of productive modeling years remaining and many projects yet to do. Unlike most notable figures in model engineering Ms Hill's writing has been limited to a few articles or interviews and has rarely written at length about her models or model building for the same reason, she feels her time is best spent in modeling.
In 2000 she was the recipient of an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for excellence in services rendered to the Empire in the area of model engineering.
