This is the only photo we have of our old TEA 20 at work.. Dad never had a proper Ferguson 3 ton trailer till later in his farming life but adopted the principle of a two wheel trailer transferring weight to the tractor by making this one from an old wagon chassis.  It was much lighter and would carry about 3 tons like a proper Ferguson trailer.

I got this shot one foggy morning when they were off cutting cabbage which in those days we put in wooden boxes for market.  Here they are with a load of empty boxes off to the cabbage field.  Jack Eccleston driving, George Kelly at the front and Dad on the back.  We could get about 100 boxes each containing a dozen cabbage on that trailer.  It was fitted with ex aircraft balloon tyres which floated it when loaded through the worst winter mud.

A year later the oak tree that it is passing behind was torn out of the ground by a whirlwind and our neighbouring farm in the backgorund extensively damaged.

John

This is really another family tractor even though in my collection - an MH 744D - British built version of the M-H 44.  I bought it near where I live in North Wales out of a scrapyard,  but it went for storage on the family farms near Manchester.  My uncle one day spotted its potential for driving the big fan on the grain drier from its PTO.  There it worked 12 hrs a day for about 6 weeks every year until a small cog driving the PTO failed and it was retired.  I eventually replaced this.  It is now back here with us and still occasionaly does a bit of work when some heavy lugging is required.  It has  a Perkins P6 six cylinder diesel which has a smooth quiet purr and is a pleasure to listen to.  I don't think that Cummins have yet got an engine that sounds so good!  And it is very light on fuel.

The tractor was originally new to the local Glynllifon agricultural college.  They had a tractor show there a few years ago and I took it along.  Here it is seen coming out of the old farm yard and buildings with me at the wheel.

John

This is very much a family tractor even though part of our collection.  Its an MF 134C agricultural crawler with a Perkins 3 cylinder diesel engine of the 1970s.  One owner from new before me but I just had to have a "Massey" crawler in the Massey-Harris collection.  I use it a bit on our farm but it has really come into its own shunting steel wheel MHs about on my soft shed floors which a rubber wheeled tractor will not do without skidding up a hell of a mess.   These were made in Italy - remember that MF bought Landini and this is just the same as Landini crawlers but in MF colours.

Here it is on the field at the back of our house with son Trystan on the levers, wife Moira, d in law Susan and first grandson Sam.

John

Here is another photo of Mr. Farnworth's 744 PD taken some years ago with another chap at the wheel.   ;-)  

And John "Cummins" couldn't believe the un-muffled peace and quiet of it!!!!

John

1990 and the arrival of the next generation of Massey Collectors, showing a glimmer of interest in the GP and Red Pacemaker here in Salmonby, I am pretty sure Stuart will want to hit the delete button when he views these which I don't think have ever been shown in the outside world before.

Malcolm.

For some reason sitting on the GP seemed to have some effect on Stuart, as he got older the tractor he like to be on most was the GP even though his feet could not reach the foot rests or brake pedals he found a way to keep himself on there.

The second photo was on our trip up to Scotland and Ian Robertson's first Massey Open Day, he let Stuart drive the wide front styled Challenger from the yard to the display in the field, that made the trip a very memorable one for him.

Malcolm.

Here are a few more photo's of my son Stuart growing up with my old Massey's, and the last photo was in 2005 when he seemed to get amongst some known Wallis / Massey guys in Arizona and across the border into Mexico.

Malcolm.

We were in the family photo archives yesterday and came across this one.

It is about 1947-1948.  It shows my grandfather on the left with two German prisoners of war in the middle named Frank and George though I am not sure who is who.  The soldier on the left will probably be a visiting military supervisory sort of official.  In the foreground is little old me aged abut 3-4.

Many of the prisoners of war were placed on farms.  In the shot you can see a very sturdy wooden hut which the government supplied to house prisoners.  It had a large living room and two small but adequate bedrooms.  The photo is taken by the front door into the living room.  After the Germans left for home the "German's Hut" as it came to be known was used to rear many a crop of chickens or turkeys and remained in use until my uncle who took over the farm retired in 1990.  The rented farm was then taken back in hand by the landlords who demolished it and sold the farm off for retail development the biggest of which was the Trafford Centre shopping Mall - one of the biggest in the UK.

My grandfather used to test out MH equipment, their factory being just up the road. MH would bring a tractor or implement and say "Test this for a year Mr Farnworth - break it if you can!"  He had a yard full of MH equipment which I grew up around.  So Frank and George would have been involved with his Wallis 20-30, MH 25 and 12-20 and Challenger tractors and his MH implements.  Their own German M-H factory was severely bombed out during the UK bombings.

Frank and George were good workers and very polite people.  I can remember them coming round to our farm next door and borrowing my mother's sowing machine When they finally went back home their final words were " we will re-build Germany" How true that came to be.

John

What a great story John and a great pic!! You were even cute back then!!!

Thanks for the history lesson.  You have experienced so much. Have you ever thought about writing a book?  or two or six or eight!!

Thanks

Gary