Went to the Richard Jefferies Museum today. It's a few minutes walk from our house. There were a couple of old tractors there. They reminded me of teenage years helping my Uncle with the haymaking. I used to drive tractors like these with a full load of hay behind when I only had a provisional licence . I know there are a few members who like old tractors. I used to drive a David Brown, a Nuffield, Allis Chalmers & a Massey Ferguson .
Great to see some of these old beasts Owen. Much the same as you, I was driving tractors at work (sports pitch maintenance not farming) before I held a full driving licence. Here is my fleet over the years in chronological order of use. NB. These are the models, but not the actual tractors I used: Leyland 154 David Brown Selectamatic 990 John Deere Midi Kubota 5240 the first tractor I used with a full safety cab and air con!!!
This looks like the International my dad borrowed from his friend when I was about eleven. I was driving it around a field trying to go as fast as it would go when I hit a tree while making a left turn. I was so ashamed of myself but the owner was joking around with me and smiling when he replaced the bent control rod. Only took about 20 minutes.
May not be relevant, or may be, is this recent news from Kew: "Thursday 22 September 2022 More than 90,000 index cards revealing the employment details of the ‘land girls’ who served in the wartime Women’s Land Army have been digitised and made available online by Ancestry today. The mostly handwritten collection consists of index cards to Second World War service records featuring the names, addresses, employment details, birthdates, and membership numbers, of the women who helped increase food production in Britain at a time of crisis. Originally established during the First World War before being disbanded in 1919, the Women’s Land Army was re-mobilised in 1939 to help the war effort. Unfortunately, the service records themselves do not survive." Women’s Land Army index cards online at Ancestry - The National Archives
Might've stared at a few tractors over the years... Beastly thing. Anything with shotgun start will have me running over to have a shufti, with a laughing fishwife behind. Books are tricky. Either lightweight general wank or very manufacturer specific pamphlets. A tiny fraction of pics, as most are really quite dull* modern-ish things. *Dull is relative. No, you're dull. Anyway. Shut up.
Ah, the old one cylinder diesel above, made in Marshalls Yard. Saw one at Ashwell a few years back, having to give an 80's JD a tow out of the arena. But I do know a shed that I'll bet no one's been in for ...... and I wonder if ..........? Anyone any ideas on what was working this spading machine (1943 photo)?
An advertisement for Health & Safety At Work from NARA. ( There are more - search for "Fordson" ) https://catalog.archives.gov/id/92701 The original catalog description provided by the Ford Motor Company reads as follows: “Harvesting sugar beets. The beet is topped, pulled and piled for shipping, all in one operation. This attachment is made exclusively for the Fordson.” Tractor-drawn beet harvester in operation - tractor-drawn corn harvester in operation - workers pitching corn from truck into tractor-powered silage grinder and silo filler - tractor being driven through field - tractor-drawn rake forming windrows in hay field - tractor-drawn binder in wheat field. “Winter.” Tractor-powered snowplow clearing road - tractor-drawn sled loaded with logs on snowy road. [1931]
I always try to get to the Cumming, Georgia show every November. Don't be distracted by the modern engine in the Ford N at 1:30. It is only for a minute or two
I used to drive one of these from the age of 14 on my uncles farm in Shropshire, ploughing harvesting etc. The tractor had two fuel tanks, one for petrol the other for TVO, tractor vaporising oil, you would start the tractor with petrol and then transfer the fuel supply to TVO for the working day. I also recall the Italian prisoners of war working on the farm, they had a large P printed on the back of their prison clothes, some of them were very good artists and they painted scenes from their home in Italy, the pictures hung in the farm house for many years.
I've dug out the only photo I think I have from my David Brown days. This is from 1987, directly after the famous October storm, as you can spot from the lack of fencing and the cricket sight screen leaning up against the squash court building. This tractor was replaced about 10 years later, when one of the rear tyres perished and it would have cost more than the unit was worth to replace the two tyres. We then went on to the John Deere model I posted above:
IWM have a fair number of photos. Not quite wearing ties to work, but almost ! https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205069224 NAVAL RATINGS TURN TO FARMING. 26 JANUARY 1943, CHATHAM, AT THE NAVY'S MODEL FARM. THE QUEEN'S BAYS ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1914-1915 PRODUCING YOUR SUGAR: THE GROWING AND PROCESSING OF SUGAR BEET, BRITAIN, 1942
Also such a ltdan "I'll restore when I find the time" project. The good piece rests felt since the Paleolithic in the very back of our barn. I had rescued it from a farm that was torn down Well, in 10 years I'm retired, then it goes on I apologise for the abysmal picture quality, but I had to balance on old spare parts in the dark.
Sounds like riding one of my bicycles ( I really must mend the brakes.) In 1942 a local War Agricultural Advisory Committee minuted as these extracts and papers, followed by lists of machinery in June 1943. First an earlier example copy order: disobey and the farmer could lose everything.... To spring 1942: Mole draining Code of Practice: June 1943 classification of applications for machinery - both accepted and declined by the various committees:
It is a Fordson Super Dexta. However, many parts are missing such as the bonnet, mudguards, seat.... I sprayed everything with rust protection paint, filled the engine with diesel and parked it. Still have no idea what I'm going to do with it... but I find something like that VERY interesting:
Two photos of our middle child back in 2003. On an old Fordson tractor at a local pick-your-own farm. Down by our local lake with his toy Renault, that now lives in our garage under the bench.
Search for "Eynsford" at IWM, limited to photographs, and you get some good colour transparencies of a farm in Kent during WW2.
The realities of trying to get a good harvest, from "Land Reclamation" by P.J.O. Trist, published by Faber & Faber, 1948. First, extract from minutes of a district War Ag in Essex in July 1941: The district minutes did not always say that Italian PoWs were good workers. As for thatching ricks, it was a hard job to find someone with the time to teach others to thatch. Availability of tractors: "By June 1941 we had acquired a fleet of 105 tractors..." ( for the Essex main committee for contractors for the whole county ). Note the prominence of Fordsons: Tractor mechanics' wages were the highest (1944/45): Notes on workers:
