Vintage, modern and future farming machinery delights visitors to the Newbury Show

[RWHB1]

By Phil Creighton
Published: 17:53, 22 September 2024

Vintage machinery lovingly cared for and still in perfect working order – as seen by visitors to the Newbury Show over the weekend. .

Spread out across a whole section of the Newbury Showground were tractors, tools, harvesters and steam rollers.

Fred Cooper sharpens the teeth of a Tasker Rack Saw at the Newbury Show, one of many exhibits of vintage farming machinery

Owners were on hand to keep the engines stoked, the fires blazing and the steam swirling, sending wafts of burning coal or wood into the drizzly September air, conjuring up scents of times gone by and a living illustration of how farming used to be.

Among the exhibitors was Fred Cooper, who had brought along a Tasker Rack Saw.

It was originally used by the Benham Estates near Newbury, as part of its sawmill.

A parade of miniature steam engines went around Newbury Showground as part of Newbury Show

Obsolete by the 1970s, Robin Greenaway of Stoke Row took it on, rebuilding it so it could be taken to steam rallies to showcase with his family’s engines.

Fred bought it last year, and was seen showing it in action, and sharpening the blades.
A vintage steam engine formed part of the showcase of old machinery at the Newbury Show


Also in his collection was a Marshall General Purpose Traction Engine, nicknamed the Old Timer.

Dating back to Victorian times, it was a thresher used to help the wheat harvest, separating the sheaves from the grains.

From 1950 onwards, it was given a new lease of life as the foremost and fastest thresher in the business, after winning several races, and helping preserve many steam engines as part of the country’s heritage.
The large retail area at Newbury Show included farming machinery of all sizes

The past wasn’t the only thing on display: the Newbury Show had a whole swathe of shopping areas set up so the farming community could admire some of the very latest technology, and get a feel for how it would work on their farms.

Exhibitors included John Deere with a large display of tractors, JCB, Range Rover, Farol, DeWalt, and Newbury-based businesses such as J&R Tyres.