A rather special display: Master and Mistress

Around our rally fields during the summer months we get to see some rather special displays. They might be of rare tractors or implements or machines or of particular exhibits brought together. On Sunday at the Fife Vintage Agricultural machinery rally we had a number of these, including the first Case tractor to arrive into British shores.

For me the most outstanding one was the two ploughing engines, Master and Mistress around the rally ring. Regular readers of this site will maybe have spotted that I have an enthusiasm for ploughing engines. But this was a really special display: you may recollect having seen the engines at the Scottish Ploughing Championships in 2014, the first time that they worked together since the two engines were reunited in the spring 2012. But this was the first time, I believe, that they were together around the rally ring. And didn’t they look spectacular.

Master and Mistress are special engines. They were the first of the BB1 engines that came off the Fowler of Leeds production line as part of a Munitions contract to build around 60 sets of engines (the number varies according to different sources). The engines were sold to Arthur Stratton of Alton Priors, near Pewsey, Wiltshire, whose family had started using steam cultivation back in its early days and by the 1870s had a number of sets pf engines. Stratton, who was well renowned in National Farmer circles died in 1918 in a car accident. Both engines were later sold to Thomas T. Boughton of Amersham, Bucks, who intended to send them to East Africa to take part in the Ground Nut Scheme, In preparation, the two engines were repainted from their black livery to a dark green one. However, they never left British shores. The engines were used by Ransomes to test a large scale disc plough.

When the engines entered preservation, passing into the hands of a number of different owners, Master was repainted in his black livery, and cosmetic additins added over the years. Mistress came into the hands of the Matthews brothers, near Toronto, and was shipped over, where she spent nearly 50 years in a heated shed. But before she left British shores in 1962, it is believed that she and Master attended the Woburn rally. Steam film enthusiasts will know that the two engines appeared in the feature film The Iron Maiden (its a great film to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon during rally season).

After the Cook family of Leven purchased Master in 2010, the opportunity arose for them to bring Mitress back from Canada. She arrived back in Scotland nearly 50 years after their separation. As Old Glory magazine noted at the time “Master gets his Mistres back after 50 year gap”.

Since that time rally goers will have seen either Master or Mistress around the rally field. It really was a special sight to see the pair of engines together around the rally ring.

Enjoy the photographs of that impressive sight!

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An Ayrshire name from the early 1960s: Ayrshire Elevator Co. Ltd

The Ayrshire Elevator Co. Ltd, of Ayrshire Elevator Works, Knockentiber, Kilmarnock, was incorporated on 19 January 1959 and continued in business until it was dissolved on 29 October 1982; it ceased trading from 1974 onwards. Its proprietor was the Hurlford Engineering Co. Ltd, with Gerald Harris, an agricultural implement maker, being a Director.

It was a small implement and machine maker, with a share capital that did not exceed £5000. Its objects included carrying on the business of merchants, wholesale and retail, dealers in and manufacturers of mechanical and other implements, tractors, vehicles, and equipment and articles of all kinds designed for or adopted for use in agriculture and farming in all their branches; the carrying on the business of manufacturers, importers, exporters, and merchants, both wholesale and retail, of and in manures, fertilisers, sheep-dip, feeding stuffs, fattening preparations of all kinds, hay, straw, grain, feed and flour, and in agricultural and horticultural produce of all kinds.

The business was a forward-looking one, with Gerry Harris, inventing a number of implements and machines that were entered for the new implement award of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1960. These were an automatic bale pick-up attachment fitted to Ayrshire elevator; a sugar beet cleaner, fitted to Ayrshire elevator, and attachments for bulk storing potatoes, fitted to Ayrshire elevator. It exhibited at most of the Highland Shows in the 1960s and sporadically advertised in the Farming News and the Scottish Farmer.

If you visited the company’s stand at the Highland Show in 1960 you would have seen a wide range of its implements. They included a standard elevator; a standard elevator arranged for bulk storing potatoes, complete with fixed extension and oversize wheel equipment designed to deliver potatoes at heights up to 9 feet; a standard elevator complete with automatic swinging extension designed to bulk store potatoes at heights of 8 ft 6 in and distribute them evenly through an arc of 6 ft; a dairy elevator with automatic pick-up coupled to Fordson “Dexta” tractor; a dairy elevator, fitted with lightweight bale extension for delivering bales to 21 feet; a dairy elevator with oversize wheel equipment; a standard elevator equipped with sugar beet cleaner and throw-off chute; a standard elevator equipped with automatic swinging extension; and a standard elevator, fitted with an automatic pick-up unit for round or square bales.

The Ayrshire name was closely linked with modern bulk handling – the way to modern, mechanised farming.

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Thinking of buying a Caterpillar in Perthshire?

If you were a farmer in Perthshire or the surrounding counties from the 1930s to the early 1950s and you wanted to purchase a Caterpillar tractor you might have thought about purchasing one from L. O. Tractors Ltd of Perth. L. O. Tractors of St Catherine’s Road, Perth, were already operating as an agricultural tractor distributor in 1938; they continued in business until at least the end of 1950. Local directories also record them in 1939 as an engineer, iron founder and millwright, as well as an agricultural tractor distributor. Their agencies included Caterpillar and John Deere.

In 1948 they exhibited at the Royal Highland Show a range of Caterpillar track type tractors, as well as equipment for them made by The Birtley Co. Ltd, Birtley, Co. Durham, tractors and agricultural machinery manufactured by Deere & Co., Moline, Illinois. They also sold the “Angus” single and double row potato diggers, also sold by Jack Olding & Co., Herts.

If you are looking through old issues of the North British Agriculturist and the Scottish Farmer, you might notice the distinct adverts of L. O. Tractors. The company was also one of the small number of advertisers in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland  (http://archive.rhass.org.uk/…/transactions-of-rhass-…/610883)

Powerful adverts to advertise powerful tractors!

The photographs were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June 2016.

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Steam ploughing at B. A. Stores Vintage Country Fair

It isn’t often that there are demonstrations of steam ploughing in Scotland. As a working practice, it continued on farms until the early 1950s. The last working sets appear to have been in East Lothian.

The steam ploughing at B. A. Stores uses the double engine system, with an engine at either end of the field. It became synonymous with John Fowler & Co. (Leeds), Ltd, the most famous ploughing maker of all, though not the only one. The plough is pulled between the engines, going backwards and forwards. One set of ploughs work one way; the plough is tipped up, and the other set work back the other way.

The two engines are from different sets of engines. At the top of the field is “Master” from 1918. His partner engine, “Mistress”, still survives in preservation in Fife – they were working at the 2014 Scottish Ploughing Championships. At the bottom of the field is a smaller engine “Sam Hird”, of 1925, named after its owner, Samuel Hird, a contractor of steam ploughing who lived for many years at Sauchenshaws, before moving into Fife, at Kincaple. That engine played a central role in the early days of the Scottish traction preservation engine movement, and was “saved from the cutter” by the newly established Scottish Traction Engine Society in the early 1960s.

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A big birthday celebration – the Scottish County Tractor Club

If you are ever around the rallies where the Scottish County Tractor Club exhibits, you will always know that they put on a superb display, whether it is in the selection of tractors, or the performances around the rally ring. The Club’s display at the B. A. Vintage Country Fair at the weekend was no exception. The Club is celebrating its 15th birthday. So in County Club style, it put on something rather special with the tractors on display (around 30 of them – that is a lot of horses together!).

The Club put together a display in the shape of the number 15, all from tractors. These were arranged from the lowest power crawlers up to the mighty 1454s. They were photographed on the Sunday morning before being arranged into another eye-catching and working display.

I’ve attached some photographs of the celebratory number 15. If you want to find out about the Club, please see its website at http://www.scottishcountytractorclub.co.uk/index.html. The Club also has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/County-tractor-club-Scotland-1415…/.

I’ve heard that the Club will be exhibiting at the Fife Vintage Rally on Sunday 4 June. Details at http://www.fvamc.co.uk

Enjoy the photographs!

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Ridging

The growing of crops in drills started in Scotland in the eighteenth century. The first crops to be grown were turnips follow much later with potatoes (they were first grown in the field in the early 1740s).

Ridging ploughs were a key implement in opening furrows for potatoes. After planting the soil was turned back over the potatoes with a ridger, plough or hand hoes. The splitting back of the ridges with a tractor-drawn rider required a lot of concentration – well, if you were not paying attention you had to look at your “mess” for a number of weeks until the growing plants hid your job.

Ridging ploughs were made by a number of the Scottish and English implement and machine makers. In the early 1950s they included both horse drawn and tractor drawn ones, with the latter being more numerous.

The Adrolic Engineering Co Ltd, Clober Works, Milngavie, manufactured with hydraulic tractor mounted, rear or mid-mounted riders. A. Newlands & Sons Ltd, St Magdalene’s Engineering Works, Linlithgow, had a set of hydraulically mounted 3-row toolbar with fixed or spring release bodies. John Wallace & Sons (Ayr) Ltd, Towhead Works, Ayr, manufactured a combined double-furrow ridging plough and fertiliser distributor.

If you are around the Scottish rally fields you will see some of the English makes that were widely used – those made by David Brown Tractors Ltd, and Harry Ferguson Ltd. Have you noticed how many sets of Ferguson riders are still around and exhibited?

When you are around the rally fields this summer have a look to see how many ridgers are around and the makers.

The photographs were taken at the Scottish National Tractor Show, September 2015.

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Buying a turnip sower in 1952

In 1952 there were a number of turnip sowing makers in Scotland who sold a range of machines. Some were renowned and long-established makers.

In you were a farmer or agriculturist in the Lothians you could purchase a turnip and mangold sower from J. L. & J. Ballach, Gorgie Implement Works, Edinburgh. The company was renowned for its “New Champion” makes, either 2 row or 4 row, with the 2 row being horse drawn and the 4 row being tractor drawn. They had disc or plain coulters. They to be used on drills with a 26 or 28 inch width.

In the central belt, Cruikshank & Co. Ltd, Denny Iron Works, Denny, made a three and 4 row hydraulically mounted drill with three point linkage for tractors.

In the east, James Brown & Son, River Street, Montrose, Angus, had a 4 row tractor drawn turnip drill, while the Forfar Foundry Ltd, Forfar, also made a machine.

In the north-east, MacDonald Brothers, Roseacre Street, Portsoy, Banffshire, manufactured a horse drawn machine.

In the south-west, J. & R. Wallace Ltd, The Foundry, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, manufactured a two row, horse drawn machine to sow turnips on ridges; it was fitted with diabolo rollers. So too did Charles Weir, Townpark Works, Strathaven, Lanarkshire.

English machines were also available to Scottish farmers to purchase. They included ones made by noted companies such as Catchpole Engineering Co. Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, S. Corbett & Son, Wellington, Salop, Diss Foundry Ltd, Victoria Road, Diss, Norfolk, J. B. Edlington & Co. Ltd, Gainsborough, P. Platts & Sons Ltd, Doncaster, Russell’s (Kirbymoorside) Ltd, Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire, and Thomas & Son, Barnstable, Devon (with Twose seed drills).

You can still see a few turnip drills made by Scottish makers around the rally fields.

The seed drills were photographed at the Strathnairn rally, September 2014.

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Celebrating 150 years in business

If you were at Ayr Show yesterday you would have noticed the rather striking and well-filled display of farm implements and machines by Pollock Farm Equipment.

150 years is a long time to be in business. There are few Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers that have managed such an achievement. Andrew Pollock of Mauchline, later A. & W. Pollock, Mauchline, and Pollock Farm Equipment, have been notable makers of a wide range of implements and machines, which are first served the farmers of Ayrshire. Now the Pollock name is known world wide.

Alongside the modern cow brushes, bale handlers and scrapers, there was a range of implements and machines that were associated with the Pollock name. They included carts (Pollock was one of the largest cart makers in Scotland), a livestock transporter, potato diggers, curd mills, land rollers, weighing scales and barrows. The company had also been an agent as well, and this was denoted by the Harrison McGregor (Albion Works) cake breaker. The company also took over the manufacture of machines from other makers, and illustrated in this aspect of the company’s history was the Barford & Perkins tedder (or kicker) – it was a key piece of new haymaking machinery, being awarded the first and second prize in th eRoyal Trials at Darlington in 1895.

Implement makers also moved around the trade, for example to learn their apprenticeships, or learn aspects of the trade. John Pollock had been a management traine at the Blackstone’s between 1953-58. This aspect of the company was illustrated through a Blackstone swathe turner.

If you looked closely, you might have also noticed the name plates from Andrew Pollock, taking the history of the company back to the late nineteenth century.

Lots to see on the stand, bringing to life the great achievements of the Pollock name in Ayrshire.

If you were not at Ayr, enjoy the photographs of the stand.

Many thanks to Jimmy McGhee and his family for all their hospitality.

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A well-known partner of Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole: Provost Marshall

If you are familiar with the history of Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries you will be aware of john Marshall, a partner in the business. When the business was dissolved on 22 January 1876 by the sole partner, Alexander Jack, it was then carried out by Alexander Jack and John Marshall, “engineers, agricultural implement makers and wood merchants” in Maybole. Marshall continued to be a partner in the firm until his death in 1909; by 1905 he was also a managing director.

When the North British Agriculture wrote a series of pen pictures of the most important figures in the Scottish agricultural implement and machinery trade in 1893 they included John Marshall. That newspaper’s account provides insights into his life and work as well as that of Alexander Jack & Sons. It reads:

“Provost Marshall, as he is generally called, on account of having for some years been Provost of Maybole, is well known throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom as the head of the eminent agricultural engineering firm of Messrs Jack & Sons, Maybole. At all the leading shows, not only in Scotland but also in England and Ireland, the “Caledonian” reapers and mowers are certain to be seen, and Mr Marshall is sure to be there with them. The firm of Messrs Jack & Sons was founded by Mr Marshall’s father-in-law, Mr Jack, who in 1835 began business in a small way as a wood merchant, cartwright, and agricultural implement maker at Auchendraine, on the banks of the Doon, near Maybole. The site of the works originally held by this firm now forms part of the beautiful grounds of Mr James Coates, who recently succeeded his father, the late Sir Peter Coates, of Paisley thread fame. In 1852, Mr Jack purchased the site of the present works of the firm and built these works from his own plans. In 1876, Mr Marshall became partner with Mr jack and, on the death of Mr Jack, Mr Marshall became sole partner of the firm. Under Mr Marsahll’s skilful and energetic management the business of Messrs Jack & Sons has continued to flourish in a marked degree, and the works of this firm are now amongst the most extensive of the kind in Scotland, while the name of the firm is accepted throughout the whole of the United Kingdom as an absolute guarantee of the high quality of the implements turned out at these works. The principal implements made by Messrs Jack & Sons are the “Caledonian Buckeye” reapers and mowers, together with rick lifters, cultivators, carts, rollers, potato diggers, horse rakes, turnip owes, &c. They also carry on a large home timber trade, having extensive sawmills both at Maybole and in the north of Ireland, which gives them special facilities for the manufacture of carts, vans, lorries, and wheels, for which their name is widely known throughout the United Kingdom. Mr Marshall individually is a most genial gentleman, whom it is a pleasure for any one to meet, and no one stands higher than he does in the estimation of his fellow exhibitors. When Mr Anderson, of Messrs Ben Reid & Co., retired from the presidency of the Scottish Agricultural Engineers two years ago, Mr Marshall’s brother engineers expressed their warm appreciation of his many admirable qualities by electing him to the presidency of the Association, and this honourable post he still holds.”

Next time you see an Alexander Jack & Sons implement or machine around the Scottish rlally fields, think about the important role played by John Marshall.

The photographs were taken at the Ayrshire vintage rally, July 2016.

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Buying a turnip sower in the early twentieth century

If you were a farmer or an agriculturist looking to purchase a turnip sower in the first decade of the twntieth century you could choose one from a number of makers.

James Macdonald, writing in Stephens’ Book of the Farm writes of turnip seed drills in 1908: “various have been the forms of turnip-sowing machines, and modes of distributing the seed. The old heavy square wooden-framed machine with its revolving seed-barrel, once so common, is now seldom seen. Its weight was useful in heavy soils, but it was cumbrous, and the seed-barrel required great care to give an equal delivery. The improved modern turnip-drill sowing-machine is light, elegant, and easily managed. It consists of a simple iron frame, with shafts, handles, two rollers, seed-boxes, spouts, and coulters. The arrangements for working the seed-boxes, and for regulating the quantity of seed deposited, vary considerably, but the better known drills are all thoroughly efficient and reliable in working. The modern machine, represents an excellent machine, made by James Gordon, Castle Douglas. Most of these modern drills can also be arranged with larger boxes for the sowing of mangels. Rollers can be attached to the rear of the machine, but these are only sometimes used.”

In 1903 makers included James Gordon, Castle Douglas, with an improved turnip and mangold drill (selling for £6 10s), as well as an improved one with patent coulters, also for the same price. Another renowned maker was Thomas Sherriff & Co, West Barns, with a machine that could also be combined with a trailing roller. Thomas Hunter & Sons, Implement Works, Maybole, had an improved turnip and mangold drill for £6 15s. Kemp & Nicholson, Scottish Central Works, Stirling, manufactured one row and two row turnip and mangold sowers. In the north-east, the most noted-maker was George Sellar & Son, Huntly, while Ben Reid & Co Ltd, Aberdeen also made a sower with rollers.

There were also locally important makers. In the south-west they included Murchie & Picken, Raider Works, Newton Stewart, which made a double-drill turnip sower, and Andrew Boyd, Noblehill, Dumfries. John Charlton & Son, Town Mills, Dumfries, was an agent for Lillie & Co., Berwick on Tweed, and sold their turnip and carrot drills.

If you were looking for a turnip sower, you could buy one from a number of leading makers in Scotland. You can still see a number of them in the rally fields across the country.

The photographs of the Jack of Maybole turnip seed drill were taken at the Ayrshire vintage rally, July 2016.

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