[General C.R Dewet]

Originally Posted by 8_10 Brass Cleaner

The Marshall drum I mentioned with the Foster rear wheels is hanging, makes Andrew Goddards look like a good one. However the owner wants somewhere near a grand for it. The harder I look at it, the more knackered I think it is. Its a full time job for a good joiner with some serious lumps of wood needed.

I've weighed it up and my assessment was thus:

I would tow it in the field, take the drawbar and Foster wheels off and burn it.

I would probably get a ton or so of iron out of it, minus the plates and useful ironmongery. So say £200, possibly less given I'd have to cart it to the scrapman.

I could move on the plates, wheels and drawbar, possibly the stub axles also, say another £3-400 in total.

So i valued it at £400 given I'd be doing the work. I also know I've allready parted money to buy the two wooden wheel hubs that came off it some time ago.


If anyone matched his valuation they are either an idiot or they seriously want that box. And there is not so many idiots about as there used to be.

If what Piers says is true, and I have no doubt that it is, if you can buy a half decent one for £500, why would anyone pay any more than beer money for a tired one?

But it does go to show you the economics, and gives you an idea why they get burnt.

I don't disagree with your valuation at all, and many times I have thought I would be better putting a match to it ! That said, I got it and a Corbett's corn mill, which is what I was after for £150. Since then it has cost me a fortune, but surely this is what this hobby of "restoration" is all about. It costs me a small fortune to run the engine every year, why should this box be different? Back in the day they were as important and as valuable as each other to the owner.

My box has local history to where I live, and being only 42" is getting pretty rare. As my friend in the village said to me when I got it, "they ain't making any more, and everyone gone makes the others more valuable". I know it's going to cost me far more than its worth, but next year when I thrash with it for the first time, I know that all the cost will be worthwhile, as I know I will have saved a bit of agricultural history for the next generation to enjoy !

And if I make any bread from the wheat, I can always claim that this is the most expensive loaf ever made, and possibly get a contract supplying Harrods !