Threshing Set A wonderful photo of a Field Marshall threshing in Somerset in the 1950s

SET UP FOR THRESHING

In this threshing scene, thought to have been taken at Blaze Farm at Haselbury in Somerset in 1952, a Field Marshall Series 2 is providing the power for a Foster drum fitted with a combing attachment. The straw is being bunched and stacked for thatching and the fact that the stack is sheeted, even during the operation, shows the value that was placed on the straw.

The ‘second rate’ straw is being baled with a low-density baler with a rubber belt bed, suggesting it could be a Claas, while the grain is being bagged and weighed into 18 stone sacks supplied by the West of England Sack Contractors Ltd.

There are various tins standing around the Field Marshal Series 2 tractor, no

Photo: Museum of English Rural Life

doubt containing oil and fuel. The tractor, which received its Somerset registration of JYC 209 sometime between December 1947 and the end of February 1948, is fitted with lights, wide mudguards and a Marshall winch, so it could be an early Series 2 Mk2 or a Contractors model.

The unknown owner of the machinery was probably a contractor who specialised in supplying thatching straw and could have had the crop grown specifically for that purpose.