Small Smalley Spotted

by Nick Drew | Thu 21 Mar 2019

Small Smalley Spotted

During a recent site visit I came across a couple of old classics, one of which was this British built Smalley excavator.

Lincolnshire born British entrepreneur Richard Smalley has often been credited with being the inventor of the mini excavator concept which he first conceived as far back as 1959. These small excavators had no driving wheels and were generally towed around by a vehicle or could pully themselves around on the job. Its probably fair to say they were pretty primitive but effective and did the job especially for small builders. Incredibly over 100 of these machines were sold into Japan in the late 1960’s and no doubt that’s where they got their ideas from as they went on to dominate the mini excavator market, which they do to this day.

This model, which I believe is a Smalley 5, is powered by a Lister ST1 diesel engine and is owned by Jason Lockyer of Lockyer Property Maintenance who used it for many years and done loads of work with it. The old machine looks like she has been sat on their property in Ascott, Somerset for a while now as the green moss is encroaching over it, but for its age the machine is still in incredible condition and mechanically sound.

The Smalley business is still going to this day, albeit in a small way, but they still produce some niche machines and are a source for original spares for the many machines that are still out there in the market. Check out this video of another example of a Smalley excavator being moved about. Enjoy the simplicity!

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