Machinery memories leave no stone unturned

From: Philip Johnson, Greencliffe Drive, Clifton, York.

From: Frank Greenway, Hollins Bank Farm, Hollins Lane Steeton, Keighley.

Regarding the piece on old tractors, I have many memories of the Fordson N Model Tractor. I was a pupil at Keighley Boys' Grammar in the early Forties and near where I lived at Steeton there was a War Agricultural Executive Depot.

Being full of machinery, we boys were often to be found watching the comings and goings of the tractors, etc. I got to know the depot manager and after a while I went to see a Mr Dodgson in the main office at Skipton who was the chief executive for the Yorkshire Area.

He took me on to work in school holidays and weekends, at a wage of sixpence halfpenny an hour!

I worked at first with one of the men, and sometimes a Land Girl, then to tractor driving on a variety of jobs.

When I was about 13, I was lime spreading on a Saturday morning in Cowling with one of the men, when he was called away on another job. I managed to finish the job and the depot manager had told me to bring the tractor and trailer back to Steeton.

Bear in mind that this was 1942 and wartime with virtually no road traffic, and a Fordson tractor could only do about 15mph, so no particular danger. I had reached Crosshills when I was stopped by a policeman and, of course, in due time, I was fined 30 shillings at Skipton Court. I remember that the men collected the money to pay the fine.

I worked there holidays and weekends until 1945 and in summer there was double summertime – the clocks went back two hours then – and I can remember working an 84-hour week at harvest time.

I have many more memories of these times, but I shall never forget the old Fordson tractor, no self-starters then, all hard work, no comfort, just an iron seat to sit on, but even so, I reckon they helped to feed us all in those hard times, far more than a lot of people realised.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Acomb, York,

I remember in 1963 I was learning to plough on a farm between Stillingfleet and Kelfield using a new 1963 New Performance Fordson Super Major with the new pale blue and light grey

livery and a Ransomes 4F TS 64 K 4 furrow conventional plough.

The man teaching me was a salesman of the York-based Agricultural Dealers H Bushell & Sons of Piccadilly York, his name was John Steel. He sat on the rear left-hand side mudguard, the tractor had no cab fitted. Suddenly, without warning, his long coat was grabbed

by the tractor rear tyre, and John passed right through between the tyre and the mudguard, landing on the soft ground in front of my tractor.

Luckily, I spotted him and stopped quickly. The wheels had been opened

out wide on the axles, otherwise John would have been seriously hurt. We were both shocked and amazed by this incident, and he told me not to tell his wife Pauline.

I have fond memories of many old tractors, as I sold them for a number of Yorkshire tractor dealers including Bushells, Goughs, Mitchells and Farmstar.

I did this from 1965 until about six years ago. I was a member of The Ford Motor Company Tractor Division Demonstration Team of 1964/5 introducing the all new Select-O-Speed transmission to Ford Dealers in Scotland and the North East of England – happy times, indeed.

CW 11/9/10