A few weeks ago I received an email from a young collector and match ploughman Ashley Boyles who lives in North Lincolnshire.
Ashley has followed in his fathers foot steps of not only collecting vintage I-H tractors and equipment, but also a very keen interest in match ploughing and Ashley has been very successful in representing England all over the globe in World Matches.

I have known Ashley since a young child at shows and matches with his dad, so he knows well my personal passion for all things Wallis and M-H, hence why his email brought a piece of M-H history forward which I had never heard of before, thank you very much for sharing Ashley.

Ashley was ploughing this autumn at the "Boston Lincolnshire Ploughing Match" with his Massey Ferguson 4215 tractor and Kverneland plough, he was judged Overall Champion on the day and when he was presented with his trophy he got quite a surprise, the wording on the trophy reads:-

Holland (Lincs) Ploughing and Cultivating Society.
Presented by Massey - Harris Ltd
For The Best Work Done By a Massey - Harris "Wallis" Tractor.

As Ashley pointed out this trophy must of been donated by M-H in the late 1920 early 1930 era and he felt very honoured to win it with his M-F tractor almost 100 years later.

Here is the photo of the inscription on the trophy together with a few shots of Ashley and his work with his M-F ploughing match tractor taken from their own "ploughing page".

Anyone else seen any of these M-H trophies donated to local Ploughing Societies or Matches ??

Malcolm.

Quality ploughing Malcolm and a priceless piece of MH memorabilia.  Can there be another one out there?

John

Fully agree with your comments John, I hope to get a much better photo of the cup before Ashley hands it back next year.
I particularly like how M-H worded the inscription with the "Wallis" after their name.

Moving on from there we recently had the British National Ploughing Championships held at Nocton near Lincoln, on part of the 38,000 acre of farmland owned by James Dyson, his farming enterprise known as "Beeswax Farming".
The Saturday was a gorgeous last day of summer, the brilliant sunshine brought in the crowds of spectators from all over the world and the ploughing was amazing, I had some German collectors call to view my collection the day before the event. Sunday was a different story, it rained all Saturday evening and almost all day Sunday until 4pm, it did not deter the competitors and again some great work was achieved in horrendous conditions.

Attached is the results sheet for each category, you will see Ashley won his class the first day and came second on the Sunday in the plough off, so he gets to represent England with his colleague Evan Watkin from Wales next year at the World Match in Russia.

Also a few photo's of my M-H contribution to the Ferguson Club stand who put together a very good display and I must say the coffee and cakes was very much appreciated on both days, especially during the very wet day on Sunday, where conversation in the tent covered many subjects.

Malcolm.

Malcolm,

Nice to see an M-H tractor - your MH 25 - on the Ferguson Club stand.  I think that I am right in saying that the Ferguson Club over its long existence has not give much attention to Massey-Harris.  I hope that this indicates a start to a broadening of their horizons, which if so, will add immesurably to the coverage of MH in the UK.  In recent years they seem to have been giving more attention to the early MF tractors whereas the club started as pure Ferguson.  Anyway well done the Ferguson Club.

John

John,

It just amazes me how many new members The Ferguson Club keep attracting, they seem to be doing an amazing job and yes the Lincolnshire Group have some very enthusiastic collectors who organise their events where they fly the Club flag, I must say it is like a breath of fresh air for me to be amongst a Club with such great enthusiasm and they are very keen to broaden their Massey and Ferguson history, which is why I am very pleased to help them out when they ask. They have also asked for my M-H No 51 horse plough for their up and coming large indoor Club Stand at the Newark end of season indoor tractor show.

Now getting back to The British National Championships mentioned earlier, the horse classes are always very popular at our matches and therefore there is always good displays of horse ploughs from different manufacturers, both on display and working.

This year is the first time I have ever seen three "reversible or one way" horse ploughs from different manufacturers at any event.
In the static display was my M-H Canuck Hillside plough which originated from Ontario, amongst another display of horse ploughs was a Syracuse single furrow reversible, the mouldboard and trip mechanism almost identical to the M-H Canuck, but the star of the show for many people including myself was the very local Cooke of Lincoln reversible horse plough, although similar principal to the Canadian and American ploughs there it had some very interesting features.
I have an original Cooke catalogue from my grandfather who used to plough in competitions for Cooke, but this is the first time I had ever seen a Cooke reversible in the flesh, a very rare plough indeed.

Malcolm.

Whilst we have diversified onto Cooke plough's built in Lincoln England, attached are some photo's of an excellent Cooke display of memorabilia at the event, including a copy of his superb Cooke Lithograph, this display was put together by a very enthusiastic Lincoln historian, his Cooke horse match plough was competing on Sunday in the mud and photo's of that will follow shortly.

Malcolm.

Here are some shots taken on the Saturday in the brilliant sunshine.

Malcolm.

Sunday in the rain, these photo's were taken about 3.30pm in the afternoon, almost the end of a long wet day,  here is Jimmy Elliott British Champion Horse Ploughman yet again using the local Cooke of Lincoln Match Plough.

Jimmy is the guy who usually shows my M-H horse implements at various shows throughout the UK during the summer months., he is a very talented man with horses and a plough.

Malcolm.

Fabulous photos Malcolm - thanks for sharing. 

The Ferguson club interest is an interesting one. I have been a member for many years and remain so despite technically not having any Fergusons at the moment, and one reason for this is the MH covergae they give. 

The last quarterly magazine was a huge 72 pages featuring both Wallis and numerous Massey Harris too. They also do a photo competition in every edition, and I was rather chuffed that the photos of my unstyled Pacemaker and dickie won it in August this year!

That sparked off a conversation which has ended up in me writing a pretty big feature for the next edition that tells the story of my Pacemakers return to service!

So I agree, good on them! I've certainly found the Ferguson club to be very inclusive of Massey Harris.

Cheers, Jon.  

Did not know this event existed, very interesting. Wonder why they dont do something like that over here in the states? Would be very neat go and watch in person or even take part in. Malcom, John, Jon or Alan, any of you ever done this event?