About this site – Page 57 – Scottish agricultural implement makers

A rite of passage: tattie holidays

Many, if not all of us, will be aware of the “tattle holidays” a holiday given from school for a week or a fortnight during the month of October, at the time of the potato harvest, to enable school children to help at the potato harvest.

In some districts of Scotland children were an important source of labour for harvesting the crop. For farmers and other agriculturists it was important that they could draw on the services of the children. By the 1870s teachers and their school boards were not happy to see empty classrooms and schools as children went to the tatties instead of attending school; neither were the school inspectors or members of the school boards. And the Scotch Education Department – as it was known back then – considered this a serious problem. Potato harvesting became a “standing grievance” or even “an evil”. This was more especially so when school grants were paid on attendance: large numbers of children absent at the tatties did not help the school managers secure their grant for the year.
Teachers, school mangers and the Scotch Education Department looked for ways to deal with this “evil”. As schools were required to have a certain number of openings, the period of the summer holiday could be shortened and the corresponding period given in October to allow the children to assist with the tatties. So started the “tattie holidays” in some rural districts of Scotland.

It was up to individual school boards to decide whether they needed to grant a tattie holiday, and how long that holiday would be. The earliest ones varied from one to three weeks, with two weeks being widespread. Neighbouring parishes could have holidays of different lengths. One could have a holiday while a neighbouring parish did not.

Even where tattie holidays were a well-established feature of the rural calendar, they were not always given every year. When the dates and duration of the school summer holiday was considered there was, at times, lengthy discussion on whether a tattie holiday should be given. That discussion and decision led to friction between farmers, parents and children and the education authorities.
There were often headlines in the press noting dissatisfaction of the holidays being granted or refused. on 4 May 1933 the Dundee Courier carried the headline “Potato holiday ban removed”. It noted how “Angus County Council yesterday turned down a recommendation of the Education Committee that potato holidays be discontinued.” There were extensive protests, petitions submitted, and deputations heard. It was a subject that raised passions.

Tattie holidays were widely given during the time of the two world wars, where it was important that the increased potato acreage was safely gathered. After 1946 the attitude towards children picking or gathering tatties hardened. But by this time the tattie holiday was a well-established feature of life in many communities. So important was it in Perthshire that when the education authority tried to ban the holiday shortly after the end of the Second World War there were protests, and the authority had to back down and grant it. Some parts of Scotland, especially Perthshire, continued to grant potato holidays in following decades while others did not.

By the 1980s when the tattie crop was increasingly being harvested by complete harvesters, there was less need for tattle holidays to be given. But by that time educationalists started to consider that an autumn break for the children in October was a good thing: it broke up the long period from the end of the summer holidays until Christmas. They had held a long-standing view that children should have a long summer holiday and to enjoy the warmer weather, than have two weeks in the colder and darker month of October. So, the autumn holiday started across Scotland. Because of the strength of the custom of the tattie holidays – they had become an institutionalised custom by this time – they continued to be known as the tattie holidays, even though eventually children no longer came to undertake that work.

As well as being an institutional custom, these holidays were also a rite of passage for many children across Scotland. For many children it was their first wage and experience of paid work. The money formed an important part of the wages coming into households, paying for essential items such as boots and coats, or even Christmas. And of course, the boilings made an important contribution to the larder.

The photographs of the children at the potato harvest were taken at Blair Mains, Culross, in October 1990. The children were from Crossgates, Fife.

An Aberdeenshire threshing mill maker: Wright Brothers, Portsoy

By 1905 Wright Brothers of the Boyne Mills, Portsoy, made reapers, drillers and threshing mills. It was their threshing mills, and as a millwright that the company was especially renowned.

At a trial of threshing mills in the parish of Auchterless in March 1908 the Aberdeen Journal favourably described one of the company’s mills:

“Mr James Gammie, tenant of the farms of Knockleith and Netherthird, Auchterless, has had a first-class new threshing machine placed in his barn at the last-named farm. The machine has been in use for some time, but has only recently had all the connections fully completed, and it was yesterday put on trial. The trial was carried out in presence of the millwright and a considerable number of interested agriculturists. The mill is driven by a 12-feet water wheel, with steel buckets. It is 3 feet 6 inches wide, with rollers and crank shakers. It is fitted with all modern dressing appliances, and deposits the grain, completely dressed for market, at any desired point, in a spacious loft, from a moving spout over the rafters. The chaff is driven by a blast to a byre, 80 feet distant, and in its course turns a right angle, where the barn joins the stable wing. When delivered, the chaff is free from short straw, and in fine form for bedding purposes. The machine is guaranteed to thresh and dress 8 quarters of grain per hour, and on trial, with somewhat damp and rank oats-a severe test-was easily doing one bushel per minute. The wood-work is of well-dressed and varnished pitch-pine, and the whole workmanship and materials reflect the highest credit on the engineers-Messrs Wright Brothers, Portsoy, Banffshire. A powerful corn bruiser in pitch-pine frame, and driven by an intermediate shift from the water wheel, has also been placed in the barn by the same engineers.”

From the 1920s the focus of the company’s activities was on threshing mills. At the Highland Show in Inverness in 1932 it exhibited its full finishing threshing mills and single dressing mills. At that show the Aberdeen Journal noted that “many of the firm’s friends and customers in the North-Eastern counties are certain to pay a visit to this stand and see how these mills are equipped in the most up-to-date fashion”.

In February 1927 the Dundee Courier described the installation of a new threshing plant from the Wright Brothers. It wrote favourably of this new installation:

“A complete threshing installation, consisting of an Allan oil engine 17hp, together with 42 in-high power mill and Bissett trusser, and a grain conveyor, have been installed by Mr James Syme, Wormit Farm.
There was a large gathering yesterday of friends in the district to witness the installation of the mill, which was typical of the class of work done by the well-known makers, Wright Bros., Portsoy, and was supplied by Messrs H. W. Mathers & Son, Perth, the local agents.”

Another account by the Aberdeen Journal in November 1936, was also favourable:

“Mr Leslie Duncan, Netherton, Fisherfield, Rothienorman, has installed a new threshing plant. The mill is one of the latest types, high speed, and three-feet wide, with sizing screen, barley owner, double fans, and a chaff and cuffing blast to covered court. The grain is conveyed to the roof by elevators and carried along the loft by belt with clocks in a case, with trapdoors to let the grain fall where desired. The whole of the spindles are run on ball bearings, and the mill is driven by a powerful Allan oil engine. Messrs Wright Bros., Portsoy, were the makers, and on a trial the plant gave every satisfaction.”

The company moved with the times. By the mid 1950s it was described in trade directories as an agricultural engineer, implement, machinery and equipment dealer and manufacturers, and as dairy engineers, dairy farm equipment suppliers.

However, changing times in agriculture also brought an end to the company. Incorporated as Wright Bros. (Boyne Mills) Ltd, on 28 June 1948, the company passed an extraordinary resolution to voluntarily wind up its activities on 7 February 1955. Its final winding up meeting was held on 17 October 1956.

The Wright Bros threshing machine was photographed at New Deer Show, August 2014.

Wrought iron corn rick stands or stools: a specialism of Thomas Gibson & Son, Edinburgh

One of the big names in wrought iron stack stools until the outbreak the First World War was Thomas Gibson & Son, Edinburgh. The company started as Gibson & Tait, at Bainfield, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. It was already trading in 1868. The partnership of J. Charles Tait and Thomas Gibson was dissolved by mutual consent by the partners on 1873. After that date the business was carried on by Mr Gibson.

By 1869 Thomas also set up a new company with his son, Thomas, as Thomas Gibson & Son. It was located at Gibson Terrace, Bainfield, Fountainbridge. In 1869 it described itself as “iron and wire fence, iron gate, and wire netting manufacturers, wire workers, smiths, engineers and agricultural implement makers”.

From 1874 to 1914 the company was a regular exhibitor at the Highland Show, also exhibiting in all the show districts throughout Scotland. It was also an award-winner at that show for its wrought iron field gates, its iron hurdles suited for sheep pens as well as for its general collection of agricultural implements. Its manufactures included entrance gates, field gates, continuous fences, tree guards, galvanised wire netting, horse rakes, fodder racks, pheasant feeders, poultry feeders, wheel barrows, sack barrows, wire chairs, garden seats, flower tables, and potato baskets.
By 1875 the company was making its wrought iron corn rick stands. These were a framework of iron spars which interlocked together in an octagonal shape which had a stool at each corner and one in the centre. The stools were designed to ensure that rats did not climb up them: they were mushroom shaped with an overhang which was to be difficult for rats to climb over. They were made in a number of sizes (as were those from other makers). It continued to make a selection of them until 1919.

If you see wrought iron rick stands you will usually see the maker’s name on the top of each stool. Other makers included Thomas Pearson & Co., Queen Street, Glasgow, one of the largest makers in the world.

The photographs of the Gibson corn rick stand were taken at the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore. The display at the Strathnairn Farmers Association Working Vintage Rally & Display, September 2014, shows a stack built on a wrought iron rick stand.

Digging tatties the old-fashioned way

While we may think of the tattie spinner as an “old” machine, it was patented by J. Hanson in 1855. Before that year, and also well-into the twentieth century, a much older implement was used to harvest the potato crop: the potato plough.

Henry Stephens described the use of the potato plough in his The Book of the Farm in 1844. He writes:

“In employing the plough to take up potatoes, the common one, with 2 horses, answers well; but as the potatoes run the hazard of being split by the coulter when it comes in contact with them, it should be taken out, the sock being sufficient to enter the plough below the drill, and the mould-board to turn them out of it. The plough in going up splits one drill, and in returning splits the next, but no faster than a band of gatherers, of field-workers, if numerous enough, but if not, assisted by hired labourers, can clear the ground of them into the baskets. In free soil potatoes are easily seen and picked up; heavier soil is apt to adhere to them, in which case it is a good plan to make a stout field-worker shake those portions of the earth turned up by the plough, which still adhere in lumps, with a potato grain, and expose the tubers.”

Given the labour-intensive nature of the plough, developments were made to improve it for harvesting potatoes. By 1844 John Lawson of Elgin had developed a mouldboard shaped device of six malleable iron bars which were attached to the right side of the head and stilt of the plough. For Stephens, this had a number of advantages: “The mode of operation of the brander is, that while the earth partly passes through it, and is partly placed aside by it, the potatoes are wholly laid aside, so there are few of them but are left exposed on the surface of the ground.”

Lawson’s potato plough or brander was drawn by a pair of horses: “in working it, the ploughman inserts it into the potato drill so as to have the whole of the potatoes on his right-hand side. He then proceeds along the drill, splitting it up in the common way. The earth is this thrown to the right-hand side, and the potatoes lie scattered on the surface of the ground behind the plough. Women follow, provided with baskets, into which they gather the potatoes, and throw the stems upon the drill which lies to the right hand side of one from which they are gathering the potatoes. … A man with 1 pair of horses will thus pass over the ground as quickly as with the common plough. In light soils this plough performs its work in a very efficient manner. It pulverises the soil in an extraordinary degree, and scarcely leaves a single potato in the soil.”

In 1889 the potato plough was used to harvest the tattie crop in certain sitiuations. Henry Stephens notes:
“On farms where the potato-digger has not been introduced, or on fields very steep and otherwise unsuitable for the digger, the aid of a plough of one kind or other is usually invoked in lifting potatoes. In some cases the double mould-board plough is used; in others, it is the ordinary single furrow swing-plough; in others, the American chill plough; while not a few employ specially fitted “potato-ploughs”.

He adds that: “The “potato plough” may be an entirely distinct implement, or an ordinary plough fitted with a potato-raiser-a series of iron or steel fingers running out from one or both sides of the body of the plough.
The specially fitted ploughs are certainly superior to the ordinary ploughs for lifting potatoes, yet it is generally agreed that if a separate implement is to be procured for this work, that implement should be the potato-digger proper.”

Potato ploughs continued to be used well into the twentieth century. By that time they tended to be used for specialist tasks, such as harvesting first earlies which required to be gently handled. But they still remained one of the ways in which potatoes were harvested in Scotland. The others were the spinner digger, the elevator digger, and the mechanical harvester which was starting to be developed to alleviate the problems of securing sufficient labour to harvest the potato crop.

The photographs of the potato ploughs were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Farming Heritage Show and Annual Rally, June 2016 and at the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore, May 2015.

Forks

Forks were an important hand tool to have around the farm. There were various types of forks, each used to undertake specific tasks including hay-making, grain harvesting, threshing and feeding cattle. These former activities included a lot of forking!

Henry Stephens describes in detail harvest forks and their uses in The Book of the Farm in 1889. He states:

“Forks used in the loading of corn require to have long shafts, not less than 6 feet, and small prongs. Such a length of shaft is required to lift the sheaf from the ground to the top of a loaded cart, or from the cart to the top of a stack. The fork used in the field should have a strong stiff shaft, as the load on the cart is at no great elevation. That for unloading the cart to the stack should be slender and elastic, as many of the sheaves have to be thrown a considerable height above the head.
The prongs, being small (about half the length of the prongs of the hay-fork), just retain hold of the sheaf, without being so deeply pierced into the band as to be withdrawn from it with difficulty. A deep and firm hold with long prongs renders the pitching of a sheaf a difficult matter; and if one of the prongs happen to be bent, or a little turned up at the point, the difficulty is much increased.
The prongs of the forks are now made of steel, and are therefore much lighter, more durable, and far superior in every way to the old-fashioned iron fork.
The best fork for the person on the top of the stack to use, in assisting the builder, is the short stable-fork.”

Forks could be purchased from agricultural ironmongers or general implement and machine makers. Makers included Spear and Jackson, Sheffield, probably the most well-known maker.

The photographs show forks being used in haymaking and threshing at the Fife Vintage Rally in June 2014 and 2015.

The grain handling revolution

The introduction of combine harvesters brought a revolution in the way that grain was handled on the farm. It also brought with it a revolution in the implements, machines and sundries available to handle grain. These included grain driers and grain storage plants and installations, as well as grain-pick ups to move grain.

Most of them were made by companies in England, though D. M. Wallace & Sons Ltd, Kelso, was making bin hopper bottoms by 1952. Early makers included Geo. W. King Ltd, Hitching, Herts, Matthews & yates Ltd, Swinton, Manchester, Mitchell, Colman & Co. Ltd, London, and E. R. & F. Turner Ltd, Ipswich.

By 1966 Coleman grain dryers, elevators, conveyors and stores were being widely advertised in Scotland. Mitchell, Colman & Co. Ltd, London, had a wide network of agents and stockists. These included: Alexanders of Edinburgh Ltd, Edinburgh Elgin Central Engineers Ltd, Elgin Jack Olding & Co. (Scotland) Limited, Perth Stirling Tractors Ltd, St Ninians, Stirling Barclay, Ross & Hutchison Ltd, Aberdeen Frew & Company Ltd, Perth Stanley Partridge, Ardlaw, Fraserburgh J. & G. Sutherland, Halkirk, Caithness A. & J. Bowen & Co. Ltd, Markinch and Cairneyhill Gillies & Henderson Ltd, Edinburgh Rickerby Ltd, Annan and Dumfries William Elder & Sons Ltd, Berwick On Tweed James Gordon (Engineers) Ltd, Castle Douglas Neil Ross (Tractors) Ltd, Forfar.

This revolution also brought changes to the way that farm buildings were used, and on some farms new buildings were erected; on others buildings were modified to accommodate the new plant. Storage was also required for the plant to be kept during the rest of the year.

It isn’t often that you see aspects of the grain handling revolution around the vintage rallies. It is an aspect of the revolution in Scottish farming that is much neglected and whose history is not well-recorded.

The photographs show grain drying, Pilmuir Farm, Balerno, Midlothian, mid 1980s and exhibits at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Farming Heritage Show and Annual Rally, June 2015.

Buying a binder in Scotland in the early 1960s

While combine harvesters had gained a firm footing in Scotland by the early 1960s, binders continued to be made and used.

By 1963 the only British makers of combines were two Scottish companies: J. Bisset & Sons Ltd, Blairgowrie, and John Wallace & Sons Ltd. Both were long established makers, also being world-renowned for them.

J. Bisset & Sons Ltd, manufactured a semi-mounted binder, powered from the tractor p-t-o, with a left hand 5 ft or 6 ft cut. John Wallace had the “J.F” front-mounted or trailer model binders of 5 ft or 6 ft cut.

Bisset continued to sell binders until mid 1966. On 16 June that year, the company passed an extraordinary resolution to voluntarily wind up the company; it was dissolved in 20 November 1970.

The last Bisset binders to be made were acquired by A. & C. MacLennan, The Garage, Spittalfield, Perthshire. On 22 July 1967 the garage advertised in the Scottish farmer, “last Bisset binders to be manufactured semi-mounted 6ft cut £195”. The garage brought to an end the long tradition of Bisset binders, and the long association with Perthshire and binder-making.

The photographs of the Bisset binder (tractor mounted) were taken at B. A. Stores, May 2014, and Scotland’s Farming Yesteryear, September, 2014 (trailing model).

Buying a combine harvester in Scotland in the early 1960s

If you were looking to buy a combine in the early 1960s you could have chosen one from a number of makers. They included Allis Chalmers Great Britain Ltd, Bamfords Ltd, David Brown Tractors (Sales) Ltd, J. I. Case, Coleman & Co. (Agricultural) Ltd, Fahr Products Ltd, International Harvester Co. of Great Britain Ltd, J. Mann & Son Ltd, Massey Ferguson (UK) Ltd, Ransomes Sims & Jefferies Ltd, and Viking Farm Machinery Ltd.

By 1960 a number of Scottish implement and machine makers had agencies with these makers to sell their combines.

If you wanted a Massey Ferguson 780 self-propelled combine, you could purchase one from John Wallace & Sons (Ayr) Ltd, Ayr or Jack Olding & Co. (Scotland) Ltd, Coupar Angus. Gillies & Henderson Ltd, Edinburgh, and A. M. Russell Ltd, Edinburgh, were selling Bamford Claeys combines. They included a self-propelled one fitted with a diesel engine and the “Super 500” with a p-t-o drive. In Aberdeen, R. G. Garvie & Sons was agent for “Claas”. These agents all exhibited their combines at the Highland Show in 1960.

The photographs of the Bamford Claeys combine were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June 2014. The photographs of the Ransomes combine were taken in Newark show ground, June 2014.

The latest in binders

The 1880s and 1890s saw important developments in machinery to harvest the grain crop. Binders entered the Scottish harvest field.

Scottish agents started to exhibit them at the Highland Show from 1882 onwards. By 1899 there were 11 Scottish machines being exhibited, though by all one maker, J. Bisset & Sons, Blairgowrie. Bisset exhibited its first binder at that show in 1887 and continued to market it as the only binder ‘entirely manufactured in Scotland’.

There were a good number of English makers of binders. They exhibited them in increasing numbers in the mid 1880s and 1890s, though the number of machines that the exhibited fell sharply after 1900.

The majority of binders were from America and Canada. Exhibitors and makers from these countries played an increasing role in the Highland Show from 1884. From the mid-1890s they came to dominate the exhibition of binders. As Henry Stephens notes in 1908 ‘the manufacture of combined reapers and binders is now carried on extensively by many eminent firms – Canadian and American machines competing strongly against British-made ones in our own country’.

The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland was keen to promote the adoption and use of binders in Scotland. During the mid 1890s it held a series of annual exhibition of binders at work, in conjunction with the Highland Show.

At the exhibition ay Mr Morton’s farm of Muirton, Perth, in August 1896 farmers and other agriculturists could see ten machines at work. They were from a range of makers. From Scotland, J. Bisset & Sons, Blairgowrie, exhibited its new patent open back steel-built binder, costing £44. Two other Scottish exhibitors acted as agents for major North American companies. James Gray & Co., Stirling, was agent for Adriance, Platt & Co., New York, and exhibited its rear discharge binder, costing £35. John Wallace & Sons, Glasgow, had the Canadian Massey-Harris open end elevating canvas binder made by Massey-Harris Co. Ltd, Brantford, Ontario.

There were four English makers. Three exhibited their own machines, also being major names on the harvest field: Harrison, McGregor & Co. Ltd, Leigh, Richard Hornsby & Sons Ltd, Grantham, Samuelson & Co. Ltd, Banbury. Another acted as an agent: Blackstone & Co. Ltd, Stamford, renowned for its hay-making machinery, had the ‘Bonnie binder’ made by The Johnstone Harvester Co., New York. Walter A. Wood M. & R. M. Co., with a London address, but a North American company, had its open rear harvester and binder, with transport attachment.

I wonder what farmers and agriculturists thought of the spectacle of seeing these new machines as they watched them hard at work at the Highland Society’s exhibition.

The selection of photographs of binders was taken at Scotland’s Farming Yesteryear, September 2014, and at Fife Agricultural Machinery rally, June 2015.

The changing face of bringing home the harvest

Leading the harvest changed greatly during the course of the twentieth century. With the reaper, sheaves were brought home on harvest carts as well as ordinary carts. Harvest frames could be put on flat trailers to allow sheaves to be built on them.

With the use of the combine harvester, grain handling systems were radically altered. Threshed grain was taken home from the field. Depending on the model, early combines could deliver the grain into bags, and bagged grain taken to the steading or to the mill. Grain tanks could allow the grain to be delivered into trailers. Ultimately, trailers made for the easiest and most efficient way to handle grain coming off the combine.

Trailers for grain and other general purposes were made by a large number of makers in Scotland, with the north-east having a number of prominent makers, especially from the 1950s onwards.

In 1952 general trailers were made by implement and machine makers including: Aberdeen Precision Engineering Co. Ltd, Aberdeen, George Brown, Pluscardin, Elgin, Cobban of Inverurie, Inverurie, Dechmont Welding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Salton, Cambuslang, Wm Dickie & Sons Ltd, East Kilbride, E. T. Y. Gray, Fetterangus, Thomas Hay & Sons, Portsoy, Alex Jack & Sons Ltd, Maybole, Alex Laurie & Sons, Falkirk, O. G. Mainland, Shapinsay, Kirkwall, Thomas McKellar & Sons, High Fenwick, James McKirdle, Caerlaverock, Dumfries, David Ritchie, Whitehills, Forfar, John Rutherford & Sons Ltd, Coldstream, Ryeside Agricultural & Engineering Works, Dalry, Alexander Scott (Agricultural Engineers) Ltd, Stirling, Scottish Farm Implements Ltd, Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, Jas. Simpson & Son (Peterhead) Ltd, Peterhead, Alexander Thomas, Guildtown, Perthshire, and John Wallace & Sons (Ayr) Ltd, Ayr.

The way the grain was cut and the amount of crop to be handled shaped the grain handling systems used. These systems were important in mechanising the grain harvest and making sure that the crop was brought home safely and as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I wonder what a farmer in 1900 would have thought of the bringing home of harvest at the end of the twentieth century!

The photographs were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Rally, 2015, the Strathnairn rally, 2014, Scotland’s Farming Yesteryear, September 2014, and at Pilmuir Farm, Balerno, 1990s.