Jun 04
Carrington’s 50th Anniversary DVD was launched at this weekends Carrington Event proving very popular with the crowds who attended. Written and narrated by Alan Stennett and filmed and produced by Steve White it promises to be another popular title for farming and vintage machinery fans.
A remarkable number of ancient machines lined up on the rally field, took part in parades and even participated in the working demonstrations. Among them were a 1917 Saunderson, one of the earliest British tractors, a three-ton Alldays, a 1915 Whiting-Bull Little Bull, Cletrac and Clayton crawlers, several different internationals, a Crawley Agrimotor, with the driver perched on a seat some way behind the machinery, a Wallis Cub, a Gray Drum Drive, with a single drum-like rear wheel and what appeared to be a shed roof erected over it, a General Ordnance that had already made an appearance on three different continents, as well as one of the wartime Fordsons which had effectively set the standard for the Trials.
To find out more visit our main site.
Nov 21
When I first saw the archive material that later became ‘Fenland Farming 55′, my first reaction was ‘That’s my childhood!’. As the son of a small farmer on the Lincolnshire Fens I could remember most of the machines, animals and farming practices to be seen.
The author ready to fetch swill from Folkingham airfield for his father's pigs
Those same memories all came flooding back when I set out to write ‘Memories of Lincolnshire Farming’. The idea was to write about the changes in farming methods and machines over the past 100 years. I took it as roughly the working lives of my grandfather and father – Grandpa came back from the Boer War in Sough Africa in about 1903 to work with his father, and my Dad decided to give up keeping sheep shortly before his death in 2005.
Not surprisingly I couldn’t cover the whole spectrum of farming in this pre-eminent farming county just through my family’s memories, but I did have the invaluable resource of the family memories of many of the listeners and contributors to ‘Lincolnshire farming’ on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, who shared their stories and their pictures with me. From the reaction I am getting from readers, it seems to have set a lot more memories flowing – I may have to have a Vol II just to keep up with the stories!
Alan Stennett
You can buy Alan’s new book ‘Memories of Lincolnshire Farming’ from our online catalogue.
