Heritage News The latest happenings from the world of vintage tractors and machinery

HERITAGE NEWS

THE LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF VINTAGE FARM MACHINERY

The Nuffield Universal M4 prior to being sold for £5800 at a farm dispersal sale in west Somerset.

Very early Nuffield under the hammer

THE SECOND NUFFIELD UNIVERSAL M4, serial number 502, to leave the company’s production line at Birmingham was the star lot at a farm machinery dispersal sale held at Leigh Farm, Dulverton, west Somerset, on 21 September.

The 1948 tractor was owned by Chris Rawle and was bought new for the farm, most likely from dealer Jones’ Garage of Wiveliscombe,

ABOVE: The historic Nuffield was displayed at Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show by new owners Pam and Graham Towndrow. ABOVE: Serial number of 502 confirms this was the second Nuffield Universal to leave the factory.

Somerset, by his father, Donald. The family still have cine film footage of the tractor baling on the farm in the 1960s, which showed it having the registration number KYC 509.

Leyland themselves showed interest in the tractor in the late 1960s. The firm was considering putting together a museum of Nuffield and Leyland products, although this never materialised. Soon after that, the tractor was ‘put out to grass’ at Leigh Farm, where it remained until the auction. Despite being in dilapidated condition and in need of a full restoration, the historic Nuffield M4 was sold by auctioneer Gethin Rees of Exmoor Farmers Livestock Auctions Ltd for a resounding £5800, much to the amazement of many onlookers.

The new owners, Pam and Graham Towndrow, best known for their long-standing involvement in the Nuffield & Leyland Tractor Club, later exhibited the historic tractor at the Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show in November.

Casterton event will celebrate 1919 trials

THE ORGANISERS OF THE Casterton Vintage Working Weekend have announced that their 2019 event will commemorate the staging of the historic Lincoln Tractor Trials, which took place at South Carlton, near Lincoln, from 24-27 September 1919. Consequently, they are looking for examples of the tractors and implements that would have taken part in the Trials.

Manufacturers represented at the event included Austin, Blackstone, Case, Crawley, Fordson, IH (Mogul, Titan and Junior), Overtime, Saunderson and many others. The organisers are also hoping to attract many of the matching ploughs, such as those of Cockshutt, Oliver, Massey-Harris, Ransomes, Howard and Roberts. Included are self-lifting and ride-on models, all of which should have been built in 1919 or earlier.

Many trade stands attended the Trials, so the intention is to attract as many other implements, binders, carts and items of equipment that would have been

Kent dealership closes its doors

LONG-STANDING AGRICULTURAL engineering business Arter Bros, a Massey Ferguson dealer for almost six decades, finally closed for business last summer, reports Martin Rickatson. The closure follows a gradual winding-down ahead of the directors’ retirement, and brings to an end more than 130 years of service to farmers in east Kent.

The company’s history stretches back to 1880, when Augustus Arter founded a contract threshing business near the village of Barham, between Canterbury and Folkestone. It soon expanded to offer machinery repairs and then sales, and by the 1950s the company held concurrent agencies for Case, Fordson, Nuffield and Massey-Harris.

Arter Bros was a sole agent for Massey Ferguson from 1958 until 2007. Following AGCO’s decision to move its Kent franchise elsewhere, a brief period as a Deutz-Fahr dealer followed, before the business slimmed down to become a parts sales-only operation.

Current Arter Bros directors Cliff and Tom Arter are the fourth generation of the family to run the business. However, as their children have chosen to follow different career paths, they and cousin Don decided to sell the site for development.

ABOVE: Arter Bros’ dealership premises at Barham back in the mid-1950s.

LEFT: This is how Arter Bros’ site looks today, following its recent closure.

shown on the stands in 1919.

The Casterton Vintage Working Weekend will take place at Little Casterton, near Stamford, Lincolnshire, over the weekend of 21-22 September 2019.

If you have a tractor or implement that is suitable for the display, please contact Willie Chatterton on 07736 243202.

Display inspired by IH dealer

ASPECIAL DISPLAY commemorating the contribution of former IH dealership F. T. Ruston & Sons of St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, to the local farming area was one of the highlights at this year’s Haddenham Steam Rally, held near Ely, on 8-9 September, reports Darren Tebbitt.

The Ruston business started life in the mid-1800s, focusing on ironmongery as well as selling farm implements. The commencement of the First World War saw International Harvester’s Mogul and Titan models being sold by Rustons, along with Massey-Harris products, although the M-H connection ended in the 1950s. The business, known to most simply as Rustons, continued trading until 1991.

A comprehensive selection of IH tractors, many of which were local examples that had originally been supplied through Rustons, featured in the display at the Haddenham Steam Rally.

Jerry Bosworth’s 1956 IH B-250 was one of the first of this model to be sold by the company and was originally bought by Haddenham farmers Dennis Ltd. The B-250 was built until 1961 and there were many restored examples displayed on the Rustons’ stand. The showcase also included an IH TD-9 crawler, plus a very well restored IH Farmall H, registration MEW 483.

Hand-built tractors appear at Toytrac

ACOLLECTION OF HAND-BUILT tractors made by veteran model maker Gordon Ockwell, 93, created lots of interest at the Toytrac show at Wincanton in Somerset, reports David Pullen. Gordon, a first-time exhibitor at the show, won the ‘Best Scratch-Build other than 1/32’ category with his IH Titan 10-20. He started building this tractor in the 1970s, but work commitments and the need to scratch build every part meant it took him 20 years to finish the project. He later went on to build a 1918 Waterloo Boy, 1938 IH 10-20 and a 1926 Fordson F, and these were also on display at Toytrac. His models, made to a scale of 2in to 1ft, were based on tractors in his late son’s collection.

NEWSINBRIEF

COUNTRYFILE GOES TO MUSEUM

The Yorkshire Museum of Farming at Murton Park near York recently played host to BBC’s Countryfile programme to film a piece about women who helped to shape the countryside. Women’s Land Army veteran, Iris Newbould, was interviewed by Anita Rani about her time with the force during WWII on a farm near Hull. Iris, 93, still fits into her original uniform and visits schools and history groups to share her story.

Anita took the museum’s 1945 IH Farmall M for a drive. This machine was imported into the UK in 1949 and spent the next 68 years with the Knapton family, prior to arriving at the museum in 2017.

DEERES ARE IN GREAT DEMAND

Vintage John Deeres have been making high prices at auctions in the USA this autumn, reports Sandy Cox. The first production John Deere GP, built in 1928, made $78,750 (£60,500) at Aumann Auctions’ sale at Nokomis, Illinois, on 27 October. A restored 1937 John Deere 62 tractor, number 48 of only 78 built, made $24,675 (£19,000) while a 1925 John Deere D achieved $21,000 (£16,100). At Mecum Auctions’ sale at Davenport, Iowa on 8-10 November, a 1919 Waterloo Boy N in original condition made a resounding $78,750 (£60,500).

SERVICE VAN GETS RESTORED

Robert H. Crawford & Son of Frithville, near Boston, Lincolnshire, has restored one of its original service vans. The 10hp half-ton capacity Ford van was purchased by the business in 1950. As part of its complete refurbishment, the interior of the van has been kitted out with the tools, spare components and reference material that would have been required by an agricultural engineer in the 1950s. Robert H. Crawford & Son now operates a fleet of 130hp 3.5-tonne capacity Ford Transit vans in the same livery. The dealership now handles McCormick, but still restores and sells Field Marshalls and Track Marshalls, as well as parts for these machines.

Marshall combine stars at Casterton

BRIAN KNIGHT AND HIS father, Ron, are famed for their combine restorations. Ron once said that a combine wasn’t worth restoring if he didn’t need to first sweep it off the trailer with a brush. This was certainly true of their latest restoration – a self-propelled Grain Marshall, which made its working debut at the recent Great Casterton event, writes Stuart Gibbard.

“I first encountered the Marshall in Robert Crawford’s yard,” recalls Brian. “It was more of a bramble bush than a combine, and even my father decided it was probably past saving! Robert Coles rescued it and later sold it to the Ingall brothers at Rand. Dad purchased it at their sale in 2012. It was in a poor state.”

The combine is a prototype Marshall E7, which underwent trials in 1942. It had a 7ft cut and was powered by two Ford petrol engines, one to drive the threshing mechanism and the other to power the

The Knight family’s prototype Marshall E7 making its post-restoration debut at Great Casterton.

Photo: Stephen Watson

transmission. Evidently the field tests were fairly successful, but production was shelved due to material shortages. A revised version of the machine was released as the Marshall E9 in 1945.

“The design was a real bodge of bits,” says Brian. “I can’t see how Marshall hoped to sell it without a lot of sorting out. It has taken us years to restore it, and I still wouldn’t call it finished. We still have the engine covers to complete.

Rare crawler gets refreshed

A1928 HOFHERRSCHRANTZ-CLAYTONSHUTTLEWORTH (HSCS) SL 50-55 crawler has just been put on display at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, reports Jim Gerrard.

The unusual crawler is fitted with a 20hp ‘hot bulb’ diesel engine and was built in HSCS’s factory at Budapest in Hungary. It was previously owned by the Garanti construction company and was used near the city of Iskenderun for construction work on an irrigation project.

It is believed Garanti had owned the crawler since 1948, but all its paperwork and its serial number have been lost, so it is unknown when the crawler arrived in Turkey. Recently it was subjected to a three-month cosmetic restoration by staff at Düzey, part of the Koç Group, Turkey’s largest industrial conglomerate.

Following its restoration the HSCS crawler was delivered to the museum in October and is now displayed alongside other tractors, including two vintage Caterpillar crawlers.

Fordson Standards are needed for big display at Kent’s Heritage Transport Show.

The Rowberrys’ revived IH Farmall H stretching its legs on a set of gang mowers.

Standard is being celebrated

TO CELEBRATE 90 YEARS of the Fordson Standard Model N, the Kent County Agricultural Society is planning to showcase the tractor at its 10th Heritage Transport Show. The organisers are trying to gather 90 examples at the event, which will take place on 6 April 2019 at the Kent Showground, Detling, near Maidstone.

Steve Pike, chairman of the society’s Heritage Committee, said: “The original idea was to get 90 tractors to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Model N, but it seems that this number may well be exceeded. All types of Fordson Standards are welcome and we already have several specials booked in, including a Cork-built 1929 Model N and an ex-Southampton docks shunter.”

To find out more on the show and to enter a tractor, visit www.kentshowground.co.uk or call 01622 630975.

Presentation caps amazing year for Berwick St. John Country Fayre

A REMARKABLE £50,968 has been raised for charity by the latest Berwick St. John Country Fayre, which was held near Shaftesbury on 15-16 September. A presentation evening recently took place in Berwick St. John village hall, where the organisers presented a cheque to doctors and representatives of Salisbury District Hospital’s Stars Appeal. It capped a great year for the Country Fayre, whose Salisbury Plain tractor road run in April raised over £7000 for the Stars Appeal.

Farmall H nursed back to health

A NEGLECTED 1940s IH Farmall H with a Perkins P3 engine conversion has been brought back to life by a family of enthusiasts from Worcestershire. Vernon Rowberry and his sons James and Chris acquired the tractor from a sale held by auctioneer Hix & Son at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire in October 2017. It previously belonged to a collector who had rescued a large number of tractors and implements from a scrapyard over a period of several years.

At some point in the very distant past, the tractor had been fitted with a front loader, which had then been cut down to allow the tractor to be used with a front-mounted pea cutter. It entered the collection of a vintage machinery enthusiast from Wisbech, but after

RIGHT: The IH Farmall H in its as-purchased state, having spent many years standing outside.

many years of standing outside its condition had deteriorated badly.

When the Rowberrys got the IH home they freed-off its seized engine with a pry bar. The fuel injectors were also freed off and once these jobs were done, the engine started and ran well without requiring much other work. The rear wheel rims and a few other parts were replaced.

This tractor is believed to be one of the first of a small number of IH Farmall H models to receive a Perkins P3 engine conversion.

Farming funnies

The more machinery you own, the more there is to mend, or at least that appears to be the point that the late Norman Thelwell, one of the country’s leading countryside cartoonists, is making in this humorous portrayal of mechanised farming in the mid-1950s. The latest machinery did not guarantee this farmer’s happiness. It’s going, all of it, we’re going back to horses!

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