What did I do with one of mine today... I sold it!
However, let me explain, because there is rather a nice ending to this story....
Back in 2015 I fancied another project.... and I saw a Ferguson TEA advertised at a place called Lymington, a small village on the south coast of the UK a few hours drive away from me. One of the reasons I bought it is I rather liked the original number plate which was just about visible painted on the rear axle – HOT 516. The letters OT denoting a Hampshire registration which was local to where it was being sold. The serial number 121482 dated it as 1950.
It was original and complete, albeit the cylinder head and various other parts were in a box. Upon collecting it, I soon realised it had been stood for a very long time, and water had got in everywhere. Engine seized, clutch seized, gearbox seized, hydraulics seized, distributor seized.... get the picture! It is the only tractor I have ever had to winch off of a trailer.
Over the course of 18 months I stripped and rebuilt the entire machine, carefully reusing all parts possible, but not compromising its reliability once rebuilt. After that it didn’t take long to get it running rather nicely and over the course of another 12 months I got it up to a completed standard that was mechanically restored, albeit it still looked like a hedgerow tractor.
Whilst all this was going on, I set about trying to discover some history and trying to get it re-registered for road use. I wrote to the archive department of Hampshire County Council and asked for details of its original registration. They found it, and supplied me with the necessary copies to enable its number plate to be reinstated. This paperwork also gave me the name of the original owner who registered it in 1950 and his name was Reg Pardey in the same little village of Lymington.
I looked in the phone book and found just a few people with the surname Pardey living in that locality. I wrote to them all, and eventually got a call from Matthew Rooke. Matthew was a nephew of Reg, and remembers the day the brand new tractor was delivered to Reg’s farm. Moreover Matthew worked on Reg’s farm for many years, driving this new Ferguson for the 12 years they owned it before it was replaced with a diesel Dexta.
HOT516 replaced horses on Reg’s small dairy farm, and Matthew has a seemingly endless supply of stories about the hard work this little tractor did in the field and on the road, at the very time when the smallest farms in the UK were mechanising. This little tractor clearly made life very much easier for Reg and the family that farmed at Lymington.
Unbelievably, Matthew had been trying to trace the whereabouts of this Ferguson for years previously (and the aforementioned Dexta) but with no success. Ironically it was laying in a hedge not far away from where he had last used it. He had posted various notices in the magazines but never found any trace of it. At the time this little tractor was advertised on the internet, Matthews computer was not working, and he simply missed it.
So, having got in touch with Matthew, I kept him updated with my progress restoring it. I proceeded to use this little Fergie for all sorts of light duties: spring field work, trailer work, road runs and haymaking. It proved to be a very reliable and surprisingly economical machine, particularly effective at turning hay with a MH Dickie, or swath rake.
Inevitably though with my own collection growing, and the ever present desire for a bigger tractor, I recently offered it to Matthew who of course has always wanted it ‘back in his family’.
So there it is, after rescuing it, restoring it, and returning it to service, HOT516 has now been reunited with the young boy who drove it brand new, albeit 60 years later from when he last saw it leaving Reg’s farm under part exchange.
What a fantastic outcome - must be fairly rare, and all thanks to some original paint.
A few pictures of the story attached.
Cheers, Jon.