Massey Discussion Forums > Massey Talk > Old Family Photographs.
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

I must be doing something wrong. My photos always come out on their side although when I post them they are the right way up.

Here is a photo of a Beavercroft Combine. Nothing to do with M-H so you want to delete it.
 It would have been about 1949. I came home from school and there was this combine combining Red Clover Seed in the same field as the Fordson N and binder were in.
The combine belong to Beaver Brothers of Basingstoke Hampshire who had designed the combine and Thorneycrofts of Basingstoke, who were manufacturers of lorries,built it for them. I think only six were built because they were quite low to the ground and got stuck quite easily and also they were competing with Massey-Harris so I think it would have been a no brainer! 

Alan
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

Malcolm,

What is the breed of horse that is in the photo with your Great Uncle Joe? Are they Shires. They was one on the farm where I used to go.

Lovely to see the stacks of corn as we called it  in the UK. It would have wheat, oats and barley to our North American friends. The chap who used to build the stacks built them oblong as in your photo but when he left a man from Sussex came to work on this farm and he always wanted to build a round stack,This was in Hampshire and in fact we called them ricks down there. What were they in Lincolnshire?

Alan

RE:Old Family Photographs.

Alan,

Pleased to see all your photo's on here, it doesn't have to be all Massey to be of great interest and all part of our history.

The horses are Shires and for me here in Lincolnshire they are all "stacks" being round or rectangular. I have heard the term "ricks" in other parts of the country.

Keep the photo's rolling and hopefully here are the ones you posted rotated, now I can understand a little better your affection for a Standard Fordson!!

Malcolm.
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

Malcolm,

It has to be really frustrating to have a collection second to none as yours and having seen just about everything Massey around the world and not being able to get your hands on the "One" that started it all.....  I hope that if it still exists you someday find that tractor back to put to rest in your collection.

In the mean time the closest thing to it I can find is a tractor just 364 older than your dads first tractor. It is in really rough shape but complete and loose and an original UK tractor, I'm sure you have already looked this over from end to end but if not here is a link to it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/massey-harris-12-20-tractor-/262849169560?hash=item3d33080898:g:lnMAAOSwzaJX3p7S

Joe
 
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

Thanks Joe,

It took me over 35 years to finally locate 106477, it has been and still is in hiding since the 1960's, but a watch full eye is being kept on the location.

In the meantime I have to be satisfied with both the Wallis and M-H 12-20's I have in my collection, dad and I searched and tried to follow its trail in the 1970's but failed and came to a dead end of the road, I never gave up hope and eventually a small lead brought fruition, just wish I had found it before he passed away, so he knew it was still in existence.

Here are a few more photo's from later in it's life at Salmonby, now on a set of UK manufactured cast iron wheels and rubber tyres, purchased as an aftermarket item out of the weekly Farmers Weekly magazine. They wore out two sets of front steel wheels, rotating them around as the sand land here quickly wore and cut of the sides of the steel rims.

Dad driving his steed and Grandad riding the M-H No 16 PTO driven binder.

Malcolm.

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RE:Old Family Photographs.

I suppose seeing earlier in this thread both John Fanrworth and Alan Harris's old family photographs of Fordson tractors makes me feel a little easier to post this one.

 Its time to reveal  my Uncle Peter's tractor at Salmonby binding alongside the old M-H 12-20 is the new Fordson E27N Major of the late 1940's.
They still had an affection for steel wheels at this time looking at the set of adjustable "strakes" as we call them fastened to the wheel centre / rim, unless it was the Fordson didn't have as much traction as the three old Massey 12-20's they were still running at this time???, On the sand land these Fordson Majors were well known for being nose heavy and often got stuck I understand, so guess that's maybe why they fitted strakes.

Malcolm.
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

The three 12-20's were still being used during the 1950's and here are some photo's of 106477 driving the threshing drum, its a William Foster serial number 6625 built 1924 in nearby Lincoln and these photos were taken after dad had spent the spring of 1954 painting up the drum, here we are over 60 years later and it still looks well standing in my shed, it must of been some good lead in the paint then. He always liked to thresh with the 12-20 due to it's much sharper governor than the Fordson.

Malcolm.
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

Malcolm,

Is it a matter of money or is the present owner of 106477 just too ornery to sell it or is he just dangling a carrot  in front of you and enjoying your misery of not having it?

If it is a matter of money I would be willing to toss a little money in and start a fund raiser.

I bet this is right up on the top of your bucket list to get these two back together for a long overdue reunion. Hope you get the chance to see that day!

Joe 

RE:Old Family Photographs.

Now we move onto 1960 and the box brownie camera now had a colour film in it for the first time, as you will see when the film was developed the photgraphs came back the wrong way round, guess the new fangled idea of colour photography got them confused in Horncastle.
Anyway even though they had bought a new I-H B64 trailed combine harvester by now, dad still liked to use the threshing set, he always said the grain sample was far better from the threshing machine than the combine, Here he is feeding the last sheaves into the machine. So now his old faihful M-H 12-20 is fully retired and reversed into the barn and threshing with the new Nuffield DM4 diesel tractor, registration number PDO 690 and purchased from Nuffield dealers H. Leverton and Co of Spalding Lincs, they were also main dealers and importers for Caterpillar crawlers here in England.
My older brother is seen here keeping an eye on the new tractor, I remember dad talking about building a cab for his new tractor and here is a good photo of his work.

Malcolm.
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RE:Old Family Photographs.

This is the first combine we ever had.  I remember going to buy it from near Wrexham - a farm a bit up in the hills.  I went with my Dad and uncle Roland.  It was in a shed and roland said "Jump on and start it up"  What an honour - and I didn't know what I was doing!  It is an MH 726 which was one of the most populat machines in the UK - in fact it dominated the market at the time.

Here it is in its later years being driven by Ken Swallow with George Kelly on the bags just finishing off the "11 acre" as we used to call it.

John
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