# Cherry Hill (model engineer)

Cherry Mavis Hill, MBE (née Hinds, 16 November 1931 – 4 December 2024) was an English model engineer known for her detailed scale models of steam vehicles. Hill won the Duke of Edinburgh award nine times, the Bradbury Winter Memorial Trophy eight times, and was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) by the Queen of England, and other awards.

## Life and work

Cherry Hill was born in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, on 16 November 1931. Her father, George Hinds, was an agricultural machinery manufacturer who began mentoring her when she showed enthusiasm for metalworking. In the Hinds household workshop, she learned machining skills and built her first models, including a scooter, warships, and aircraft. In that phase, Cherry received special mention for her Sunderland flying boat model in a model-making contest. While continuing her development as a model maker, she completed a BSC in maths at the University of St Andrews. During her 60-year model engineering career, Hill built nearly 20 detailed scale models of steam vehicles, including Victorian models, which each took her approximately 7,000 hours to make. The parts in the models were all made from her metal stock, and the engines are fully operational. Additionally, her engines were made from scratch, every nut and bolt was made in her workshop, and a complete model took 7 years to make. Cherry Hill is considered to be one of the greatest model engineers ever due to her success in competitions.
An article written about her by the Craftsmanship Museum says that, "The uncompromising craftsmanship exhibited in Cherry’s work is a result of her attitude. She never accepts anything less than perfection." As her career progressed past its early stages, Hill started building unusual models, many of which were insufficiently documented or had no existing original copies. Due to the scarce information frequently taken from patent applications, Hill often had to use her design skills to overcome missing information and shortcomings in the original designs in order to make fully functioning models. Her favorite model was the Blackburn agricultural engine of 1863. Hill needed to be resourceful and imaginative in various critical components, including the crankshaft, valve chest and eccentrics, boiler, steering, and front suspension. The models made at the beginning of Hill's career were given to family and friends, but she donated her more recent ones to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
In addition to her acclaimed work as a model engineer, Cherry Hill also worked as a machinery designer for her family business McConnell-Hinds who made innovative hop-picking machinery. Cherry was also an inventor and had had several patents awarded to her, including the well known Crypton Synchro-check carburettor balancer (produced commercially by AC Delco), an air flowmeter device used for setting and balancing multiple carburettors on car and motorcycle engines. An expert on obscure 19th-century engineers, Hill explained that ‘Everyone has heard of Brunel and Stephenson, but there were a lot of very clever people in the background. I'm just interested in these people and how they thought about engineering.’

## Models

In the 1950s, Cherrie Hill began working on the Stuart Turner No 9 early 20th-century steam engine. She was ‘thrilled to bits’ after 18 months of work because she achieved her goal of getting the engine to work. The model won her a bronze medal at the International Model Engineering Exhibition. After that, she built an Allchin Royal Chester traction engine. Thanks to her father's suggestion, the model was built in a scale of 1:16, which was important because it became the scale she used in later models. The model won her a silver medal at the exhibition. However, Hill wasn’t satisfied and spent 7 years improving it after locating the full-size machine near Tonbridge, England. Later, she built a Stuart D10, a Burrell showman’s engine, and a red 1905 Merryweather fire engine, which got her on the cover of Model Engineer magazine along with the Allchin, increasing Hill’s recognition among model engineering enthusiasts. These were praised due to their obscurity, complexity, difficulty, and rarity.
Cherry Hill’s Blackburn agricultural engine of 1857 was a model based on a design made when traction engines were in their early development, and many were impractical. The plans for the Blackburn were insufficient, so Hill had to create her own design to make it work. That model won a gold medal at the Bradbury Winter Memorial Trophy and a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Another exceptional model was the 1862 Gilletts & Allatt traction engine, partly because Hill designed and patented her own traction engine. It also won a gold medal, a Bradbury Winter Memorial Trophy, and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. A notable project of Cherry’s later years is the Nathaniel Grew ice locomotive, which was used in Russia to carry cargo across frozen lakes and rivers in the 1860s. It is made completely from steel, and the sled blades were constructed using conventional machining rather than CNC. Many of Cherry Hill’s award-winning models are exhibited at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, England.

## Personal life

Ivor Hill, also a model engineer, first saw Cherry on the cover of the 1968 Model Engineer magazine; he was so enamored that he declared, ‘I’m going to marry that girl’. He successfully courted her, and they were married and lived in the U.S. until his death. Cherry Hill died in Malvern on 4 December 2024, at the age of 93. She was survived by her sisters, Charmian and Rosalie, as well as their children.

## Awards

* Sir Henry Royce Trophy for the Pursuit of Excellence (1989 and 1995).
* MBE (Member of the British Empire) award (2000).
* Elected Companion of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2004).
* Honorary member of the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (2004).
* Awarded nine different gold medals at the annual Model Engineer Exhibition in London.
* Awarded the Bradbury Winter Memorial Trophy eight times.
* Awarded the Aveling Barford Cup twice.
* Crebbin Memorial Trophy.
* Awarded the Championship Cup three times.
* Awarded The Duke of Edinburgh's Award nine times.
* Joe Martin Foundation Craftsman of the Year Award (2017).