AN AGRICULTURAL company that is celebrating its centenary is trying to reclaim pieces of its history after its whole collection of original machinery went up in smoke.

Lister Shearing is celebrating 100 years of shearing equipment being made in Dursley, firstly under the name R.A. Lister – once Dursley’s biggest employer – and later as the separate company it is today.

Managing director of the company Alun Williams had been keeping a store of all their shearing and clipping equipment from 1909 onwards in the building at the bottom of Long Street.

However all of it was destroyed in a huge fire that swept through all the Lister factories in 1983.

Mr Williams, who joined Lister’s in 1973, said: "The intention was that one day we might make a little museum of our equipment, but unfortunately everything was ruined by the fire."

To try to reclaim some of this collection Lister Shearing has been running two competitions in trade magazines to find the oldest clippers and the oldest shears from the Lister collection.

On Tuesday a set of gold coloured centenary clippers were presented to Pippa Akers, of Wootton Bassett, who found a pair of Lister clippers in an old barn at her farm, thought to date back to the 1920s. She has donated the clippers to Lister Shearing to add to their collection and the competition winner for the oldest shears will be announced later in the year.

The company, which is now owned by American company Wahl, has also commissioned local history writer David Evans to compile a book about the company’s history and is planning an open day later in the year.

Mr Williams said the centenary is so important because R.A. Listers and its many break-away companies including Lister Shearing have been so important to the town over the years.

"Dursley is Listers," said Mr Williams. "It was so important to the town. When I joined there were over 3,000 employees at the company in Dursley alone."

Today Lister Shearing is a smaller stand-alone company but still employs 50 people in Dursley and is the world’s largest established clipper and shear manufacturer.

The quality of their products is well known and previous customers of their clippers include the French Equestrian Team, Badminton stables and Zara Phillips.