Harry Ferguson Tractor Research, Toll Bar End

Hello everybody, I would like your help. I'm currently writing about some prototype tractors that were built by Harry Fergusons' Tractor Research Division between 1961 and 1965. They were called Mk1's and had a 948cc BMC diesel engine. The design went on to be the BMC Mini 9/16 tractor. I have been searching for these prototypes and have found 8 so far with another 7 to go. I currently own two of these, registered 496EUE and EAC943C. Can anyone who worked at TR or knows about these prototypes and would like to talk about them or who has pictures, records etc to aid my story about them please contact me on 01453 547577 or 07941 890062. Many thanks. John Poulter.

Reading this old post. Does anyone know if Harry Ferguson's Tractor Research became F F Developments (Ferguson Four-wheel Drive)? FFD had a factory at Toll Bar End, before moving to Wolston and then finally to Leamington.

This is from a 1973 article about Noel Penny Turbines taking over the factory.

Thanks Annewiggy. The Major and his son Tony went on to develop a 4 wheel drive system for ambulances. They also developed rally car gearboxes. From the original site, they moved into the old Bluemels factory in Wolston. FFD was purchased by Ricardo PLC around 1997

Mick, from what I've read the Ferguson 4 was like a few other engineering feats - pioneered by one but developed and made successful by others.

Funny thing. Lot 628, Standard-built the Ferguson TE 20 but sold all rights to Massey Ferguson in 1959. I have pics, I think, of their sales visit to Yugoslavia. Too much info at the mo.

Not sure if you know, but the "little grey fergie" has gone down in musical and video history! - Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJUHdPPac4 and https://startsat60.com/media/opinion/how-the-little-grey-fergie-saved-a-town. How the Little Grey Fergie saved a town John Reid, Jun 27, 2016 June marks an anniversary about which a surprising number of Australians (and Coventrians [JW]) know little or nothing: It is 60 years since the town of Wentworth was saved by a tractor, the Little Grey Fergie. There was above average rainfall through the years 1954, 1955 and into 1956. It was what we commonly refer to as La Nina, and a prolonged event that caused widespread flooding in areas of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The abnormal rainfall had two severe effects. It raised the level of the water table, lifting groundwater salt to the surface and thus ruining a lot of otherwise arable land, and the ground became so saturated it retained no capacity to absorb further precipitation. Unlike flash floods in undulating terrain, those in the predominantly flat country through which the Murray and, especially, Darling Rivers flow are more turgid, pushing over river banks and spreading out across the land. Additional rain in catchment areas increases flows which can no longer be accommodated in the river channels and must then push out slowly, relentlessly, ever further onto surrounding lands. Wentworth, Little Fergie Plaque People downstream along the two mighty rivers, the Murray and the Darling, knew for many weeks ahead there were floods on the way. The problem was that nobody knew just when they would become a major problem. orecasting was an undeveloped art and, to a great extent, dependent on local postmasters noting river levels and telegraphists passing on warnings. The 1956 event brought a realisation that better forecasting was needed and more funding was made available to the Bureau of Meteorology for such purpose. Rains in the Queensland and New South Wales catchment areas pushed a greater weight of water downstream and Wentworth, the town at the confluence of the two great rivers, was in dire straits. People feared it would be entirely submerged. Urgent action was called for. An unlikely saviour existed, although nobody had given it great thought until a local farmer came up with a suggestion that proved a true townsaver. Post WW2, the government had established a soldier settlement scheme, putting returned servicemen on 20-acre blocks in the Sunraysia. Every one of them was provided with a Ferguson tractor. Designed by an English engineer, Harry Ferguson, these were small tractors, light, functional and entirely brilliant in concept, with as many as 100 different implements of coordinated design capable of fitment to their two-point linkage or other parts of their chassis as necessary. A lot of people were evacuated - hundreds, in fact - but many more remained. An intense period of work saw man and machine coordinate to build miles of levee banks to save the town. Dozens of farmers and their little grey Fergies turned out, working continuously to fill sandbags, to drag and dump and compact soil embankments. It was an around the clock effort, stopping only briefly to pee, to eat and to top up fuel tanks. Human and mechanical workmates teamed together to cut out, carry and dump loads of dirt in rotation. The army lent a major hand and the town was saved. Wentworth created a monument to the Ferguson tractor. It bears a plaque that reads, in part: THIS CAIRN WAS UNVEILED ON APRIL 20, 1959 BY MR L. T. RITCHIE, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MASSEY FERGUSON (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED,

Hello Ley154, we've a small set of MF tractors, probably research division, taken by Harold Hankin in the 1950s. Be good if you had more info on them. You'll need to register to Cov Dig before the link works however. Example:

There is a good chance that this picture was taken at the Massey Ferguson Training Centre at Stareton. If that is the case then the building shown in the background is one from the former United States convalescent/rehabilitation hospital from World war 2 which I referred to in Post 7 of the recent 'US Army' topic.

The registration plate CVC171C was issued in Coventry between January and December 1965 ?