“It has a been a strange perversion of women’s sphere – to make them work at producing the implements of war and destruction and to deny them the privilege of fashioning the munitions of peace.” Katharine Parsons

Women engineers in the Great War

Lloyd George predicted that the Great War would be a war between engineers. Little did he know how of many of those engineers would be women – including these at the Parsons works at Heaton in Newcastle. Women did everything from rewiring warships to assembling aircraft. Read more...

Inventor of the modern world

Turbinia is the supreme symbol of the steam turbine, which revolutionized propulsion of ships and allowed electricity to be generated on a vast scale. Its inventor, Charles Parsons, was described as the man who invented the modern world. His influence is ranked with that of Watt and Faraday. Read more...

Reaching for the stars

William Parsons, third earl of Rosse, invented a record-breaking telescope that remained the largest in the world for 70 years and made possible the detection of spiral galaxies. Its speculum, or mirror, is on show at London’s Science Museum. Read more...

Fairytale castle

Birr Castle, County Offaly, is the ancestral home of the Parsons family and the site of Ireland’s Historic Science Centre. The giant telescope known as the Leviathan of Parsonstown can still be seen in the castle grounds. Read more...

Sidebar Content

Welcome to Parsonstown

The Parsonstown website celebrates the genius and ingenuity of the Parsons family. Read more...

News and events

The story of the invention of the turbine by Charles Parsons is told in the BBC TV programme Genius of Invention.

Don't miss Handmaidens of Death, a riveting short film by Tracy Gillman about women in the munitions factories during the First World War.

Find out all about Britain's Hidden Talent: Women Engineers, with fascinating contributions from the Women's Engineering Society.

The fourth Women in Engineering Day will be held on 23 June 2017. Organized by the Women’s Engineering Society, its aim is to raise the profile and celebrate the achievements of women in the profession. For the first time, this will be an international event.

Henrietta Heald offers insight into the extraordinary life and violent death of Rachel Parsons on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Oxford University's Bluestocking magazine recognizes the pioneering achievements of Rachel Parsons.

The vast quantity of electricity generated by Parsons inventions kept the lights on and the machines operating in the factories during the First World War, as explained by BBC Newcastle in a broadcast from the Heaton works.