Boiler suits, bunnets and boots were the uniform of choice for the men atop the vintage Internationals, Fords and wee grey Fergies at a vintage farm rally and demonstration at Cupar.
The enthusiasts who travel long distances to display antique tractors at events like the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club (FVAMC) event are passionate about the machines and generous with their information and their time.
Show just a little knowledge, and they’ll demonstrate the mix of petrol and paraffin required to start a 1947 Fordson Major or elaborate on the original cost of a winch accessory on a 1948 Land Rover series 1.
Tell them you’ve sat on your father’s knee while he drove some of the more recent of these classic machines and they’ll indulge you by cranking up the engines so you can share the purr and the memories.
The men who haul their machines long distances are invariably retired farm workers who have spent years seeking out, resurrecting and restoring their heritage. Well-oiled engines and polished paintwork belie the devotion that has gone into elaborate restoration and turned wrecks on a farm tip into valuable antiques.
Robert Young, long since retired from life as a farmworker, arrived at the rally with his sons George and Robert who had brought their Ford 3600, an International 248 and a Ford 7710.
“My father worked on Fife farms with horses and when I started as a farm worker at Thornton in 1955 it was with a grey Fergie,” he said.
“And then it was a big day when we moved on to a Davie Brown. My sons started restoring and collecting tractors in the 1990s and I suppose we do it because it brings back memories.”
Jim Penny from Kirkcaldy has one of the most coveted tractors on the circuit. He found the petrol-paraffin Fordson Major, now restored in its original rich blue and orange livery, in an old shed near Aberdour 20 years ago.
“It’s an illness,” he admitted. “I think restoring old tractors is for folk who didn’t have a Meccano set as a kid. Some of the machines here were found seized up and rusted at the back of a corn yard, so getting them into working shape takes a long time.”
“This tractor worked most of its life in Perthshire and it still has its original tyres. Machines like this revolutionized farming. They’re a part of our history.”
NFU Scotland president, Allan Bowie, who spent an afternoon at the rally, contrasted the labour-intensive techniques on display with modern farm equipment that has replaced people on the land.
“This is a great education for the public,” he said.
“They’re sitting watching and listening to a commentary telling them that there were nine pairs of horse on some of the local farms. That required a lot of people but today just one man does a similar amount of work by using the power and technology that’s available. Hopefully it will help them understand the revolution and innovation experienced by Scottish agriculture.”
