A big day out at the cutting edge of nostalgia

Next weekend Sledmere Estate farm manager Martin Cole will be turning back the clock when his collection of 1960s and early 1980s combine harvesters return to the field. They will form an integral part of the Vintage and Classic Working Day that he has organised with fellow farmer Ralph Beevers 
of Cottam.

“There is a generation growing up that has never seen this part of farming when families and villagers would come together to help bring in the crop.

“I don’t think we realised it at the time but the period from the 60s to the 80s was a golden age. Everything has become so high-tech and very fast moving. It’s different now and no longer the way of life farming once was. It’s a sign of the times.’

“Today harvest is all about bigger and faster combines. They are now able to do the work that five did 10 years ago.

“That has made the life of a combine operator quite a lonely existence. In the 70s there were teams and everybody stopped for lunch that was brought into the field, along with fresh tea.

“You’d have two combines, two trailers and a baler, all being driven in the same field, plus others stacking bales. It was a real team effort and there was a real camaraderie.

“It sometimes makes you wonder where we are going in the name of progress.

“One of the reasons why I keep the older combines and tractors is because if they are not preserved there will be nothing left to show future generations what times were like and they will be forgotten.”

With his collection of largely Massey Ferguson combines, tractors and implements and his feelings about showing others how things used to be Martin hatched the idea for the Vintage and Classic Working Day.

It has grown massively from a simple get-together of friends and locals to an event that now looks likely to attract thousands. He seems to have tapped into a market that is growing year on year.

But Martin is not a member of a vintage machinery society.

He and Ralph Beevers have never ben involved in putting on anything like this before, and they have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of interest it has created.

“It’s amazing how it has grown. I was talking with a few friends who have vintage machinery just after Christmas.

“I asked them whether they would be interested in taking part if I could provide the land through my employers and everyone came on board. I’ll have my own collection of three combines including my 1964 MF 500, 1981 MF 525 and 1985 Canadian MF 865. They will all be on display and working.”

Martin’s MF525 combine holds a very special place in his heart. He purchased it from his previous boss, David Lister, two years ago because his father had it from new. Steve Cole passed away five years ago and was very well known in local ploughing competitions.

“We will also have a threshing machine working and another farmer is coming along with a binder. We are hoping to show over 50 years worth of harvesting all in action at one time. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy reliving the past and I really would like it to be an educational day as well as providing an entertaining event.

“There will be vintage tractors too including my own 1964 MF65 and 1977 MF595 and we’ll have cultivation equipment. Another local farmer, Peter Scruton, is bringing a grey Fergie that he bought from Sledmere Estate 20 years ago.”

Neighbouring farmer Brian Clark is another of Martin’s fledgling committee that has come together to put on the Working Day.

“We have been at Croome Farm since 1941. Farm machinery has become much faster since that time and it’s good to be able to take a glance back to those days when harvesting involved much more of the rural community than it does today.”

Sue Cole, Martin’s wife, is co-ordinating the event as well as turning her kitchen into a round-the-clock baking establishment.

When I visited earlier this week she had just completed her sixth fruit loaf. Her face tells a familiar story. One that most farmers’ wives whose husbands have come up with a new idea that needs a woman’s touch will understand.

“I had no idea what this was going to develop into and I still don’t. At one time we felt that around 500 might turn up on the day.

“Now it could be many more but we don’t really know. It’s made it tricky to know exactly how many we should cater for on the day.

“What we have tried to do is to make it more than just about the farm machinery.

“We have several craft stands, plenty of children’s attractions and Jackson’s bakers who are launching a new range of bread are bringing a traditional van they are using in their promotion.

“That really fits in with the combining side from harvesting to loaves.

“Other local companies include ex-dairy farmers Stephen and Judith Foreman’s Mr Moo’s ice cream and Rose Cottage Pies. We’re also very grateful to Bluebell Meats at Wetwang who are handling all the catering, apart from the fruit loaves, at cost prices. It’s a real local effort.”

Martin took over as farm manager at Sledmere two years ago after 30 years with Lister Farms. He succeeded John Southwick, who still works with Martin two days a week. The estate farm runs to 1500 acres of arable and 400 acres of grassland. Sheep, deer and cattle are all part of the farm’s livestock enterprise.

“Sir Tatton Sykes and Mr Greenfield of Sledmere Estate have both been very supportive and I thought that we should also try to raise money for a good cause. In the end we decided on two charities, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).”

“The Yorkshire Air Ambulance came to mind first as one of my team, Barry Sygroves, had to be airlifted to hospital when he became trapped between a tractor and a power harrow a few years ago.

“Where we are it would have taken 35 minutes to get Barry to Scarborough, but by air that was just four minutes.

“That extra half an hour saved could have been vital.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t know much about the work of the RABI until setting up the event, but their regional organiser Sally Conner came to see us and I found that their work, which often goes on behind the scenes, is tremendous.

“They are the real unsung heroes looking after those in need in the countryside.”