Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Tractor & Farming Heritage

In our special review issue of the Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show 2023, I would like to give special thanks to Ian Palmer for his report on the Marshall Club’s marquee at the show (see page 46). With over 1000 exhibits, it’s a big show to get around, and the more times I go, it seems the more there is to see. In our report, I commented on the excellent layout of the exhibits. However, at a first glance it seemed as though the tractors in the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall were too tightly packed in, especially with there being so many visitors over the two days. But once you started examining the tractors close up, you realised just how much there was to see, so it suited me…

In great news for aficionados of farming, freight, and fine-tuned agricultural fun, winter is ending early this season, thanks to an early-bird spring spectacular, displaying everything tractor, truck and trading related. The traditional season opener, the Tractor World Show, returns to the Three Counties Showground in Malvern - this year a winter-warming month earlier, on February 24-25. The two-day extravaganza is celebrating its new date with even more exhibitors, trade stands, displays and more bargains than ever before. Expect to see hundreds of vintage, veteran and classic tractors, vans, stationary engines, classic commercials, lorries, trucks, Land Rovers and vintage vehicles, historic farm machinery and agricultural heritage displays. Open 9am-5pm Saturday and 9am-3pm Sunday, you’ll be spoiled for choice with a wide range of regional and national club stands and displays,…

A very successful Vintage Show and Working Day during 2023, resulted in members of the Teifi Valley Vintage Preservation Society presenting cheques to the value of £15,600 to several charities and groups at their annual presentation evening at Café Emlyn, Tanygroes on Thursday, November 2, writes Lyn Jones. The beneficiaries receiving monies from the proceeds of the events were: Prostate Cymru, £4500, The Bronglais Hospital Aberystwyth, Chemotherapy Unit Appeal, £4500, The Wales Air Ambulance, £5000, and Troedyraur YFC, £600. The society once again would like to thank the landowners, sponsors, exhibitors, and the public who attended the events for their continued support.…

It was not only a case of a happy return for those of us who have attended the Newark show over the years but also for the show itself celebrating its 20th birthday in some style. And for those who attended for the first time, let’s hope there are many more shows like this to come. The show continues to develop both in the way the team behind the scenes put everything together and in the standard of the displays. The team, headed by chairman Roger Jackson and Terry Shaw chairman of the NVTEC Nottingham Vintage Tractor and Engine Club, should be congratulated for their splendid efforts. Top honours There were over 1000 entries of vintage and heritage tractors, commercial vehicles, stationary engines, and agricultural equipment competing for top honours…

In May 1895, the Staffordshire Post reported on the different industries that existed in the local area, and mentioned Bamfords of Uttoxeter, describing their Rapid grinding mills as “gems of perfection”. They added that the grinding discs inside these mills were made of especially hard metal, which were conical and could be easily turned over to grind with the other side when one side became worn out. Big business The Rapid Mill was just one of many highly successful machines made by Bamfords of Uttoxeter during their long history as manufacturers of agricultural machinery. The history of this enduring family business begins in 1871 when Henry Bamford and his son Samuel founded an ironmongery company. Henry had a large family comprising 13 children, but three died in infancy. Henry’s sons…

What do Henry Ford, the prolific farm toy collector Peter Wade-Martins, and a little girl called Pippa Hughes, have in common? The answer: they all feature in the new Model Farming gallery in the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), at the University of Reading. Model Farming at the MERL is the first public UK museum gallery devoted to farm toys, where visitors will see over 150 carefully selected toys from the incredible collection of over 2500 items that were generously donated to the museum in 2019 by the collector, Peter Wade-Martins. The displays use farm toys, alongside scale models and other artefacts, photos, and imagery to reveal the fascinating story of agricultural mechanisation. The gallery was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Robert Van de Noort…

Colin Griffiths was born and raised in the Wrexham area. He has retired from the army and now spends his time working on farms and restoring old tractors. Background He spent many years in the Army and served all over the world. Although he was brought up in the countryside, he didn’t come from a farming background and had to learn everything on the job. While Colin was learning to drive tractors for a living, he was also building up his own collection. “I have owned several old tractors over the years and enjoy taking them to rallies and road runs,” he explained. “The machine I take on the day depends on the weather. Nobody likes driving in the rain, and some of my tractors are fitted with cabs.” Colin’s…

The Second World War impacted everything, including agriculture. There was an increasing urgency to produce more home-grown food, not only in Britain but also on the other side of the Atlantic in the US. The situation was dire in Britain, following nearly four years of blockade by German submarines at the beginning of 1942. The country still relied substantially on food imports from its large Empire around the globe, despite the same problem that occurred back in the First World War. Grim times The British Government had at least learnt some lessons during the earlier conflict and was, with agriculture at least, ready to increase food production at home as the first signs of war clouds began to gather. It knew, though, that it would not be easy for farmers…

The Newark feature marquee of 2023 hosted the Marshall Club, celebrating 175 years since William Marshall set up his business at Gainsborough in 1848. Inside there were 75 Marshall exhibits ranging from an 1850s William Marshall saw bench to one of the last Marshall tractors built, a 1989 D844. Vintage The vintage collection inside the marquee included Stephen Clements’ 1894 traction engine ‘Teapot’, two vertical MP steam engines, an SMM steel-framed thrashing machine, a large Marshall saw bench, which would have been used in a sawmill or wooded area and numerous Marshall sack barrows. Outside the marquee, there was a 1900 Marshall 10-ton steam roller ‘Monica’ and a 1901 7nhp traction engine ‘Old Lass’, with its 1910 Marshall living van, which has a very original interior. In the period that…

Henry Dixon, from Pembrokeshire, has recently purchased a local Saunderson/Crossley G No. 2041 to his collection. First refusal In the will of the deceased owner Mowbray Thomas (84) from Camrose, it said that Henry had first refusal on the Sanderson G tractor based just six miles from where the Dixon family farm extensively today. The three brothers involved were farmers and engineers and was the place to go to get the repairs needed. They were also excellent blacksmiths in their day as well. The early history of this tractor made at Elstow Works, Bedford is not exactly known, but the tractor has been in the Thomas family for at least 80 years, it is said. Henry Saunderson was a pioneer tractor manufacturer, having made his first self-moving tractor in 1898.…

Held for a second year at Turvey House near Bedford, the annual Bedfordshire Steam & Country Fayre had something for everyone last September, writes Mark Worbey. The Bedford Steam Engine Preservation Society has been hosting the event since 1957, with other notable locations for the event being Woburn Abbey, Roxton Park and Old Warden Park, home of the Shuttleworth Collection. Some layout changes for this year allowed more room for the exhibits to move around, as this is certainly not a static event. The beautiful parkland site had something to see at every turn, with over 85 traction engines, 100 miniature engines, vintage and classic cars, commercial vehicles and an old-time fairground. In the tractor section, Steve White had pulled together a varied selection of makes and models from the…

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Welshman Elwyn Hughes has an eye for the most celebrated aspects of our rural heritage and on Welsh farms, at least, it doesn’t get much more historic than sheep and grey Ferguson tractors. Part to play Fergie tractors and sheep have been a key feature of most of our farms. Just as most farmers will have at some time owned a Ferguson, they too have tales to tell of sheep shearing time, which is still an important and a traditional part of the farming calendar today. Sheep farming is one of the world’s oldest industries, and people have been removing excess wool from sheep to make clothes and blankets since at least 3500 BC. Wool was an important trading commodity, and many towns, not just across Britain but also worldwide,…

Visitors to Ryedale Folk Museum are guaranteed to find something extraordinary, especially when entering any of the cruck-framed buildings. For me, Stang End Farmhouse is special, because it was a real farm building, carefully taken apart and then transported to Hutton-le-Hole, lock, stock, and barrel, then rebuilt. This dwelling has walls built of stone, with cruck frames and a thatched roof. It came from Danby Dale, one of the larger dales within the National Park, about 12 miles from Whitby. It stood for nearly 500 years before it was moved to the museum in 1967/68 and is a superb example of one of the earliest farmhouses to have survived in this area. Parts of Stang End are thought to have been built as early as the 14th century. This development…

Although it has seemed a long time coming this year, winter has finally arrived, with frost on the grass most mornings. Sunny but cold days, but mostly wet, wet, wet. Caught out I daren’t wait any longer to get the wurzels lifted and stored undercover. I left them late one year, and we got caught out with some early hard frosts. It ruined a lot of them and turned them to mush. So, one sunny day I got wrapped up and made a start. Because of the adverse conditions we had in the spring, it has turned out to be a poor crop. We usually reckon to get around ten tons, but this year I will have clamped barely a quarter of that. Now they are up and under cover…