The tractor that won the war

With the closure of the Ford plant in Southampton, I was thinking about the influence Ford has had on modern vehicles, and especially tractors. They produced a number of iconic and influential brands, but the Fordson Model N became widespread and familiar to many in the interwar period and during the Second World War.

THe S E Davis Collection has three Model N Fordson tractors (amongst the several other models of Ford and Fordson tractors):

This green Fordson Model N has pneumatic tyres, and the narrow mudguads suggest a fairly late manufacturing date, around the Second World War. The large crawler behind it is a Caterpillar D8 22A, which is in running order.

Model N AutoMower conversion

The AutoMower company made a rage of Fordson conversions, this one is based on the Model N. The S E Davis Collection has a number of AutoMower conversions and pices of equipment, many based on Fordson and Ford bodies. The fordosn you cna see behind is an E27N

Second World War Fordson Model N

This Fordson is most likely from the Second World war period, indicated by its narrow mudguards. Tractors like this were a common sigt throughout the coutnryside carrying out tasks vital to the war effort.

Fordson Model N

By the time Ford began producing the Fordson Model N the company had already established itself as a manufacturer of cheap and popular farm tractors. Ford began to displace other American companies, such as John Deere and International Harvester, as market leaders for UK tractor imports during the Great War, when the head for British Ford, Percival Perry, offered a prototype design of tractor to the Ministry of Munitions (MoM) for consideration. The MoM took this design on, and undertook to buy these tractors at cost plus $50 dollars per unit. Initially 5,000 units were ordered, but this was increased to 6,000, and the order was completed in April 1918. These early Fordson (Ford was prevented from using the Ford brand on tractor by an a tractor manufacturer who had already claimed the Ford tractor name, although his design didn’t prove successful) tractors had a Hercules engine (manufactured by Hercules Motor Corp., Canton, Ohio) the had  six-spoke rear wheels and ladder radiator sides. This MoM tractor, as it came to be known, was eventually replaced by the Model F tractor. This was a very similar vehicle, but, from 1920, possessed a Ford engine which was still of the same basic pattern with four cylinders and rated at 1000rpm. The gearbox gave three forward speeds and one reverse and the total weight was of around 3000 pounds.

The Fordson tractor became the most popular tractor in the UK, and was produced in Cork in Ireland.

From 1928 the Cork plant produced the new Fordson Model N, until production was switched to Dagenham in 1933. In 1929 the Cork production facility was the largest tractor factory in the world at this time.

The Fordson Model N ‘Standard’

Very similar to the Model F, the new tractor featured a conventional magneto in place of the Model T type coils and an increased bore engine with a maximum of 30hp when the new high compression head was specified. The engine was also available in either petrol or petrol-paraffin versions, while a heavier and redesigned front axle added more weight.

The major differences visually were the cast front wheels instead of the spoked variety used previously as well as the use of full length rear mudguards fitted as standard (first offered on the Model F in its latter days of production). These long mudguards were intended to help reduce one of the Fordsons’ main disadvantages; in certain circumstances the tractor would rear up on its back wheels (from my own experience this wasn’t confined to Fordsons, I have seen our old McCormick International rear up when working or carrying weight on the rear). Unfortunately some drivers had been seriously injured or even killed when the tractor’s implement hit an obstruction in the soil sometimes causing the vehicle to tip backwards onto the operator himself. The long mudguards helped to prevent this to some degree and also provided space for two toolboxes.

This Irish N was a huge success, but production switched to the larger plant at Dagenham by 1933.

This new English built Model N looked a bit different to its Irish forebears. the long mudguards and  the grey colour scheme were replaced. The colour scheme was replaced with dark blue models and orange models. The Fordson name was now cast into the radiator side panels and a new ribbed pattern cast into the radiator tank with the toolbox mounted on the dash. The tractor was available in two versions; the standard agricultural model with steel wheels, or the more versatile Land Utility model complete with pneumatic tyres.

In1935 lights and electric starter were available as options as was a rear power take off shaft. Two different gear ratios were also later made available, the standard box being referred to as the green spot version whilst a new low gear ratio option was introduced known as the red spot version. One of the main features of these tractors was the water-bath air cleaner which consisted of a header tank behind the engine block with an air intake mounted through the hollow steering wheel. An industrial type came with pneumatic tyres, electric lighting and horn and was used in a number of non-agricultural roles.

In 1930 the Roadless Traction Company, which was based in Hounslow, Middlesex, built its first crawler conversion of a Fordson. These were originally a full track configuration with the tracks themselves made with special rubber-jointed track plates.

1937 saw the introduction of the new orange paint, known as Harvest Gold, was introduced, and an oil bath air cleaner replaced the old water-washer version.

The old Fordson engine, still basically similar to the original, was now pushed to higher compression with an engine speed increase to 1200rpm, to give more power from the unit. This did cause some engine problems particularly with oil consumption and bearing failure, but the Fordson was still generally reliable. The orange tractors were still available either on steel wheels, as the Land Utility version on pneumatics, row-crop tricycle model or in industrial form (similar to the All-Around, which was a tricycle version with vee-twin front wheels and adjustable sliding rear axle, which had been aimed at the North American Market).

Fordson was by this time the best-selling tractor in Britain, selling far better than any of the other manufacturers which were generally the more sophisticated American machines.
However the Model N was beginning to get a reputation as a temperamental machine, difficult to start, especially when hot, and difficult to get into gear when cold (synchromesh gear boxes weren’t available for tractors for many years to come). This reputation was not helped by the changes made to its engine which made the orange tractor very prone to oiling its spark plugs when running; experienced operators would habitually keep a spare set warming on the cylinder head.

The outbreak of World War II resulted in a change to green paintwork (apparently to try to make the rows of tractors at Dagenham look a bit less conspicuous to overflying enemy aircraft, certainly there was a major project to disguise manufacturing production, my Grandparents often told me about the trompe l’oeil images of terraced houses painted onto the rooves of factories in Birmingham).

This version of the Standard Fordson became the only tractor produced in large numbers during the Second World War. The change to green was accompanied by a few alterations to the tractor itself and the difficulties associated with the engine problems on the orange tractors were addressed with changes to the head and pistons.

The tractor that won the war

With the threat of food shortages  in mind and the war looming, the British Government and the Ford Motor Company came to a deal, whereby the government to stockpile 3000 Fordson tractors in readiness for the effects of the coming conflict. According to some sources the stockpiled tractors were all painted an all-over yellow colour to help identify these particular machines. When the war did arrive in August 1939 the 3000 Fordsons were joined by thousands more green Fordson N tractors produced at the Dagenham plant, at a rate of up to one hundred a day, throughout the war (the 100,000th Dagenham built tractor came off the production line on 10th November 1943)

The Second World war, with it’s shortage of raw materials, and change in the composition of the work force, lead to a few changes, for example, the rear mudguards were made narrower, in an effort to save steel supplies. The hexagonal holes in the radiator casing were designed the spark plug to be held firmly, while the operator split it using the specialised Fordson spanner, allowing cleaning of the spark plug core. The Model N remained the same throughout the war years, although various different experiments were carried out with regards to engine types and different transmissions, many of which were used by the military as aircraft tugs and for general haulage duties, often with specially built modifications.

The need to produce war materials halted most other vehicle manufacture, making the Fordson the only tractor available in any quantity. The Fordson N was essentially a very simple tractor and was a very reliable machine overall and it became the tractor most often encountered by the hard-working women of the Land Army. The website http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/74/a2054774.shtml features the story of one of these Land Girls, Mary Henson. She mentions using a Fordson, and some of the maintenance tasks she had to carry out.

These Fordsons played a vital role in the efforts to combat the food shortages, as land was made to work harder, produce more, and more and more fallow and was pressed into service. With so many people involved in the war effort, the mechanisation of agriculture was necessary to allow the physical tasks to b completed. Tractors like the Fordson Model N allowed a Land army worker, or lone farmer to keep the and working, despite the lack of labour available.

The Model N was produced until 1945 and by the end of the Second World War thousands of Fordsons were working in the fields of Britain and had been converted for a range of uses in agriculture and industry.

The RAF used many of the Roadless crawlers (first produced in 1930) but preferred a half-track version to the original full-track version, as it was found that fitting a front axle to the crawlers (thus making them into half-track machines) made them more stable when hauling heavy loads. These were seen on the runways of the many grass airfields that were scattered all over the countryside during the war. Model N Industrial versions were also used by the RAF for aircraft tug duties, sometimes these were fitted with Brockhouse torque converter transmissions.

A number conversions used the Model N Fordson as a base unit including road rollers, dump trucks and drainage machines. The tractor was often fitted with an extra slow reduction gearbox to help cope with the slow speeds necessary for such work.

There were even some Fordson N conversions to diesel power and fitted with Perkins four cylinder diesel engines. Initially the diesel engine was slow to be accepted, but with improvements in the technology and they became more powerful farmers gradually came to see what benefits they had to offer in terms of reliability and fuel economy. This option was never offered as a factory standard. The Model N was replaced by a new Fordson tractor in 1945.

Engine
The Fordson Model N engine, lacked a pressure lubrication system and relied solely on “splash” caused partly by dippers on the big ends collecting oil from troughs in the sump and partly by the motion of the tractor. When the tractor was stationary and engaged on “Belt work” the sump needed to be kept up to the correct level. When running the engine on vaporizing oil it was most important to drain the sump every 50 hours and refill it to the correct level with S.A.E 30 oil.
The Fordson tractor is a gauze screen, which is accessible when the plate is removed from the base of the sump. It acts as more of a sludge trap than a filter. The engine is designed with a “dam” which when the oil is circulated retains the oil passing it through this filter. If the oil becomes to thick the filter will become clogged and the oil will spill back over the dam and into the sump unfiltered
Cooling System
The engine was cooled by the circulation of water in the jackets round the cylinders. The heated water flowed by thermo-syphonic action, assisted by a pump at the front of the cylinder head to the radiator, and as it flowed downwards through the radiator tubes, it was cooled by the stream of air induced by the fan placed behind the radiator.
On later models a radiator calorimeter, or temperature indicator, was fitted to the cast radiator top and enabled the operator to see at a glance if the cooling water was at the correct temperature.
The water had to be cleaned daily or even more often if working hard. On cast water jacket systems holding a lot of water, it was be impracticable for cost reasons to use anti-freeze, as ell as this often being unavailable during the war period (see Mary Hensons story).
Steering Box.
On Model “F” and “N” tractor with the large water filled air cleaners the steering was lubricated partly by grease nipples and partly by sump “Fumes”. On the later (1937-1952 )oil filled air cleaner models the steering box was oil filled. The level needed to be checked every day-drain and refilled every 200 hours. Water filled cleaners had to have the level checked twice daily and be drained and flushed weekly.
Rear Transmission
The Fordson Gearbox and rear axle was a common chamber, the recommended lubricant was E.P 140 viscosity oil. According to West, the old thick oil really caused heavy gear drag, which helped tremendously to free the clutch on cold mornings. He reports that the old 140 oil was so thick that when repairing the tractor in winter he’d heard of farmers having to put a 5 gallon drum on the top of the primus stove 2 hours before it was needed to be poured into the tractor. The oil level had to be checked often, and changed frequently.

References:

http://www.tractorbarnproductions.com/#

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/jc9dEhe7RPaAUmd6TwqzdQ

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/74/a2054774.shtml

http://www.ytmag.com/articles/artint83.htm

The worst of all results?

After the announcement yesterday to delay the Badger cull, I found myself wondering if this was the worst of all outcomes. On one hand those opposed the cull still have the prospect of a resumed cull to come next year, and those who equally strongly believe a cull is required and essential to their livelihood and the wellbeing of their livestock have to wait longer for the trial culls.

The argument is that the estimates of badger numbers have been revised upwards, meaning the groups preparing to cull the badgers no longer feel they have the resources necessary to cull the 75%-80% of animals required before winter.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a debilitating, highly infectious disease of cattle which is similar to Human TB, and indeed humans can be infected with bTB from infected cattle, and BTb in humans can be fatal (although the routine pasteurisation of milk has reduced incidences of this markedly).  Caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis, bTb symptoms often  start with a hard, dry, short cough (due to lesions or tubercules, in the lungs), which can lead to increasingly painful breathing and more and more coughing. In advanced cases the animal will cough up blood. If the lesions develop in the udder then, over time, it will become solid and hard lumps may be felt. The milk will look normal until the disease is very developed, when it will eventually become watery and bluish in colour.

It can be contracted by coming into contact with the bodily fluids of infected animals, such as sputum generated when the animal coughs.

Hygiene and shed security measures can go a long way to minimize reinfection, but many farmers feel that these measures are insufficient.

Most importantly, in relation to the cull, bTB is found in species other than cattle, including badgers. It can be found in deer, cats, alpacas, horses, sheep and rats as well as badgers.

It has been estimated that bTB has cost the country £91 million during the 20010/11 financial year (http://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/), which if so is an estimated 44% increase from the previous year.

As it is believed that Badgers make up the most significant reservoir of infection of bTB, and their behaviour often leads them close into farms and farm buildings, there is strong support for a controlled cull amongst farmers and farmers groups. However, many feel that the evidence for the significance of the risk they pose is questionable, and that a cull might actually be counter productive. Certainly if a population of badgers is culled, it can result in whats referred to as the perturbation effect; If their social structure is disrupted my the removal of individuals, badgers will move around which can result in a mobile population of potentially infected animals moving into new areas.

Why can’t we vaccinate Cattle?

Currently the vaccine used would result in ‘false-positive’ tests when the herd is checked for the disease, meaning it’s not possible to be certain whether the herd has cases of bTB, or if the test is picking up the antibodies from the vaccine.

Why can’t we vaccinate Badgers?

Currently the only vaccine available for badgers has to be injected, which would require a capture and release program, and qualified personnel to administer the injections. This could be lengthy, expensive and difficult to coordinate, and as yet there’s no oral vaccine that could be applied to bait and left for badgers to eat. There is also the problem of false positive results if populations of vaccinated badgers  are tested.

The implications of culling such an iconic, protected native species means that a cull can’t be taken lightly, and is unlikely to be free from controversy, yet dairy farmers are facing great hardship, and the loss of a herds could force a farmer out of agriculture. Neither group are likely to have felt satisfied with the delay.

What do you think?

on my commute…

It’s been a little while since I last posted, so I thought i should get back to it.

First, I’m quite excited that the first draft of the newly made catalogue for the S E Davis collection has been produced, and is undergoing expert review!

Secondly, the realization that my period of full time placement at S E Davis is drawing to a close has made me pay a little more attention to my journey back and forth from work. What has particularly struck me whilst driving through rural Herefordshire and Worcestershire was the marked difference between the character and appearance of the two counties.

One thing (aside from wild hops) that I notice in both counties is the marks of agricultural history on the landscape. I always find it exciting and pleasing to see the distinctive undulations in grasslands, the remains of medieval ridge and furrow farming, formed by a particular style of farming. Although there were a broad range of agricultural techniques and practices in use throughout medieval England (and it’s important to remember that the medieval period is a long and dynamic time in history) ridge and furrow farming has left a strong imprint on the land.

They are formed by the interaction of the physical properties of the plough and the necessity to turn the beasts pulling the plough. Early ploughs could plough in only one direction, meaning the plough can’t return along the same furrow and the ploughing was done in a clockwise direction around a strip of land. This strip of land was kept relatively narrow, so that the plough wasn’t dragged over what was referred to as the headland (the unploughed land at the end of the strip), and then the strip was ploughed in the other direction. The soil was turned in one direction on one pass, and then in the same direction (relative to the plough) in the other, causing the rows of turned soil to pile up against each other, along the centre line. When the next strip was plouged it formed the same pattern next to the original strip. Over time this results in a furrow between each area of ploughed land, with the soil rising towards the centre line of the ploughed strip.

Each strip would be farmed, and individual farmers might have several strips (often scattered throughout a number of strips, to ensure an even distribution of good and poor strips) and each strip could bear a different crop. It must have been a glorious sight, with strips of barley, oats, vetches, rye, peas, wheat and so on, all mixed in together. A stark contrast to today’s monocultural fields.

As time progressed, these ridges became more pronounced, and farmers would pull up the more fertile soil which had moved down into the furrow, as well as adding manure, and marling the soil (the addition of clay mixed with carbonate of lime), both of which increase the height of the ridge.

In this respect these ridges remind me of the floating gardens, or Chinampas, of the Aztecs. Where an area of a shallow lake is staked out and fenced with wattle, then the whole area is layered with sediment and vegetation, until it rises above the level of the lake. IN this respect Chinampas are far more like cranogs of Scotland than ridge and furrow farming. However the similarity is that they are increased over time by the action of generations of farmers manuring the ground, and hauling up fertile sediments from the bed of the lake onto to the Chinampa.

Anyway, back to ploughing. As plough technology progressed new designs of plough were developed to allow larger areas of land to be ploughed without these distinctive ridges and furrows. The irony perhaps is that the evidence for early ploughing is often obscured by the action of later ploughing.

There are several sites where these ridge and furrow fields are easily seen, with several surrounding the White Ladies Aston turning off the A422, and along the Hereford to Worcester road.

APF Vintage Section

Yesterday gave the most amazing, terrifying, exciting and humiliating driving experience of my life. I was given the chance to steer an early 20th century Burrell engine to the APF show at Ragley Hall.

As someone who has been driving for more years that I want to count, and who grew up driving tractors, I felt a little apprehensive, but confident I would manage. However, nothing prepared me for how different the steering would be!

The vehicle is steered by means of a single chain wound around a metal spindle and attached to the two front wheels. The spindle is wound by a gear attached to a wheel by a long shaft running alongside the engine. In practice i found it was incredibly easy to over or understeer, and there was never a point where a beginner could lose concentration. On more than one occasion I found I was oscillating from side to side, desperately trying to compensate for my original overcompensation! Fortunately for me I was under the supervision of Paul Davies, who has driven Steam Engines (as well as many other vehicles) since childhood, who with a few deft turns of the wheel restored equilibrium with a minimum of fuss.

Once at the APF (http://www.apfexhibition.co.uk/index.php) show, there was plenty of work to be done, helping the remarkable Mr. Lawley setup and run his saws. Mr J. O. Lawley has been working in saw mills, timber haulage and haulage since he was 14 (aside from a spell during WWII when he hauled aircraft around, and then 2 years as a Bevan Boy in the mines), he is now in his early 90’s, so his knowledge is extensive and first hand!

The Burrell engine was powering Mr. Lawleys hand-built saw bench (which used some vintage components, primarily the fast and loose flywheels) and was tensioned using a David Brown crawler tractor. Paul’s McCormick WD9 was powering Mr Lawley’s reciprocating horizontal frame saw. This remarkable device was of german manufacture, built around 1900 and saw service in a Welsh saw mill. It’s now in the process of being restored, but is in otherwise good running order.

The timber was hauled by a Foden Timber Tractor (complete with the 6-wheeled timber trailer it was bought with) and some tongs made from the plans of Boughton timber handling tongs.

The Burrell engine in steam in the early morning air.

This is what i was trying to tow, an approximate total of 25 tonnes.

THe McCormick WD9 hard at work powering the reciprocating horizontal frame saw

The Foden, Douglas and an AEC Matador lined up at the APF vintage section

Another view of the Burrell and it’s trailers in the yard at S E Davis

S E Davis

As I said in my second to last post, I am now at S E Davis, a family run firm in worcestershire (http://www.sedavis.co.uk). One of the passions of the family is vehicles and they have a staggering collection of agricultural and construction vehicles. THe range is truely remarkable, they have steam engines dating from the late 19th century and very early 20th century, through to internal combustion vehicles in production in the late 20th century, and a huge amount in between. The collection of crawler tractors is particularly large (I have catalogued 114 and ! haven’t reached the end of the collection yet). Reading like a list of major tractor firms, the collection includes Cletrac, Caterpillar, Fiat, International Harvester, Fowler, Bristol, Allis-Chalmers, Vickers, Ransomes and so on.

They also have possibly one of the oldest surviving living vans, made by John Fowler of Leeds in the late nineteeth century.

Many of the items have amazing stories attached to them, for example there is a Cletrac aircraft tug which saw service in WWII and a Cletrac crawler that ploughed snow at the white house and ended it’s life working at Greenham Common airbase, where it was riden on by Margaret Thatcher.

Even if the vehicles weren’t involved in high profile events, they have built our modern world, and carry the stories of the countless people that have used them. Walking through the sheds and fields of sleeping giants, or scrambling between the trailed mowers it’s imposible not to think of those men and women who have used them, and one can almost hear their voices echoing down through the ages.

Badge from a Foden Timber Tractor

Suppliers badge for the Foster threshing box

A Case LA, registered in Manitoba

HAving seen action in WWII, this Cletrac has come to rest

The makers badge for one of a pair of BB1 ploughing engines, origionally commissioned for WWI, but never saw action

A Barrows and Co Portible Engine. Not a commonly seen make

Musings…..

Writing the earlier post made me reflect on my experiences at Shugborough. Although I was pleased with the outcomes, two issues caused me to take longer to refresh the displays than I would have liked. Firstly I started with the information and the topic ideas, rather than the objects. On reflection I feel I could have chosen the objects first, then constructed the display. The obvious counterargument is that the displays were topic lead, and not focused around a specific collection or specific objects and therefore choosing them would have been hard without themes at the very least. The other issue which cost me time, and I feel was entirely due to my inexperience was the way i approached and constructed the first drafts of my information panels. I tended to approach them as I would an essay, which meant my word count was far too high initially, I was fortunately I had a great deal of guidance and support from the staff at Staffordshire county museum and archive service, who helped me heavily prune the text into a manageable form.

Another thing I would have liked to have done is to have included information to take away, and activities for children to do. However, this would have required a degree of monitoring and maintenance which I wouldn’t be there long enough to provide, and I was reluctant to leave the museum staff to deal with this. I did however make an information sheet on gardening for bees, which referenced the plants in the Shugborough hall gardens

Why the big pause?

Mainly I use them to catch fish ….

Sorry for the long delay, a combination of business, technofear and technical issues has stopped me from blogging, no doubt to my own detriment!

So, the story so far…….

After gaining a place on the Heritage Lottery funded Curatorial traineeship for Social History (Agriculture) I spent some weeks based in Hereford Museum, looking at their agricultural collection and at a number of other areas associated with rural crafts and agriculture. These included going through the impressive collection of Winterbourne glass plate negatives to extract the impressive number of images devoted to the countryside and agriculture (lots of hop pickers, it being Hereford) and looking at Clisset chairs.
Also in that time DiscoverHistory in Worcester kindly let me join them to deliver presentations on Medieval agriculture to school groups at the Three Counties Show (in kit, in the rain).

From there I spent five weeks in the wonderful setting of Staffordshire County Museum, based at Shugborough Hall. I did often wonder just how many museum staff had to get out of their car to move a herd of cows before they could get into the museum car park. I spent the time at Shugborough Hall refreshing five display cabinets with displays on contemporary rural Issues; Bee decline, Feeding the growing world population, farming energy, rural communication and Bovine Tuberculosis.

The display on bee decline in an early stage of development

Layout ideas for the rural commuincation display

Draft information panels to check font size and experiment with layout

A range of bee keeping tools, included in my display on bee decline

Now I am at the private collection of the family run firm S E Davis (First Choice for Landscape Supplies) and my adventure in museumship continues….

The word of the day is metadata

Well, its been a busy few days, and I promise I’ll post more about what I’ve been up to very soon.

Today I am attending the OpenCulture 2012 conference, held at the Oval cricket ground. There is much to be excited about, with delegates and speakers from several European countries.

One of the main areas that the conference is focusing on is the digital presence of museums, and how institutes are digitizing their collections and how this information is used.

The word of the day is definitely metadata….

today i have mainly been….

Today I have mainly been helping with the modification of some of the shelving at the museum resource and learning centre. Several areas have had either new storage units fitted, or existing storage modified. It was an interesting exercise for me, as i got to see how the shelving was put together, and speak to the people who had origionally installed much of it. It did involve much careful moving of boxes. Thanks go to the etremely efficient and organised volunteer who had prelabelled all the archiology boxes, and drawn a handy plan for reinstating them again!

The iron church spire was a bit of a suprise find though.

Hello world!

Well, it’s hard to know what to say in my very first post in my very first blog, however….   On the 19th of JAnuary this year (2012) I was lucky enough to be offered one of four heritage lottery funded placements as a curatorial trainee. My specialism being agriculture, which sits within social history, the two being so intimately bound, even in these days of people being as removed from food production as they are. The 12 month placement began in March. I’ve been in place for a few weeks now, and the learning curve has been sharp, I’ve seldom been in a situation where i had to learn so much so quickly, however, it is an immense pleasure to be working in a museum, and to be surrounded by objects which carry so many stories. In these last few weeks I have begun to review the agricultural collection; initially i thought that i would make logical sense to catalogue the objects themselves, but due to factors like the passage of time and location changes, items have lost labels, have been assigned temporary numbers or have become dissociated with their histories, and some are not yet entered into the electronic database, so it seems easier to review the accession registers on Microfiche and then seek out the items from this list, and try to reunite items with their history and original accession number. Additionally to this I have worked on a fascinating collection of glass plate negatives from the late 1800’s, taken by a Leominster photographer called Thomas Henry Winterbourne. These included many images of the countryside, agriculture, daily life, and especially hop picking. There are several thousand of them, and of them several hundred are linked to agriculture and rural life. There is a series of themed exhibitions of these images around the north of Herefordshire over the next year or so. Another project I have been looking at is a review of the display boards in Ledbury Heritage Centre. The topic was already chosen, and was to be the story of the ‘Clissett Chair’; how a traditional country chairmaker influenced the arts and crafts movement.