Border VintageAgricultural Association

January 2014 Newsletter

Chairman.C. C. McCririck, Whitmuirhaugh, Sprouston, Kelso TD5 8HP.

Telephone 07836624245

Secretary.K. Sterrick, 56 Glenburn Avenue, Newtown St. Boswells TD6 0QN.

Telephone 07920520475

Treasurer.W. Johnston, 31 Weirgate Way, St.Boswells TD6 0BZ.

Telephone 01835 823572

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20 Havelock Street Hawick

TD9 7BB

Club web address:- www.bvaa.co.uk Newsletter:- bvaa@live.co.uk Membership:- bvaa@live.co.uk

January 2014

Dear Members May I wish all members a happy and prosperous New Year.

Hopefully you all have survived the current monsoon season and any winddamage has been kept to a minimum. I don’t know what is worse, wet andwindy or frost and a few feet of snow!

As you may be aware the annual renewal subscription was raisedto £12 for full member and £10 concession at this year’s AGM to coverever increasing costs.

The club insurance has been altered to run from January to Januaryto allow members to submit entries to other rallies that require a currentinsurance, however our renewal date will remain the same, i.e. at theannual rally in May. Should you need proof of insurance before the Mayrenewal, please send your fee to me at the above address and I will sendout the new membership card.

Our chairman has also issued a request for more volunteers to helpat the annual rally; it’s not a full time job, just be available if needed. Yourhelp will certainly be appreciated.

Finally, I’m indebted to Jim Bradley for sending me reports andstories to include in this newsletter as without them this publication wouldbe a shadow of what is normally produced.

Jim

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Drew Turnbull

I’m sorry to have to report that the club has recently lost anotherlong-standing member. Following a tragic accident, Drew died at the endof December. He will be sadly missed in vintage circles. Our thoughts goto his family.

Those were the days

I suppose just about every member of the BVAA has memories ofthe good old days, although many of the good old days were anything butgood as I recollect, but all are worth sharing at some time. Few gatheringsof country folk keep to current affairs for very long because everyoneknows all about what is going on at that time, reaching into the past isdifferent.

My agricultural past is probably quite different to that of manylocally based members as for me it all happened in East Kent, which inmany ways was a world different from farming around here. Dubiouslynamed the Garden of England, it might have been better titled as theMarket Garden of England, given the numbers of folk who scratched aliving off small acreages of land. These smallholdings were often a legacyof the days when returned servicemen were given assistance to do theirown thing on a smallish plot of land, something like ten to twenty acres,often less, was the norm, although I am not sure.

Market gardening was never a one-crop affair, growers tried tocover as many types of produce as they could in order to have enough tocarry them through a bad year. Many made their living selling direct tothe public from vans, many of which were in such a terrible condition theadvent of the MOT test rapidly put them right out of the game.

My small part in market gardening started when I was around tenyears old doing odd jobs around the place. I swept a lot of yards, washedthousands of eggs and weighed out countless 5 lb bags of potatoes,although in the latter case it was the done thing to allow the weight to goover rather than under. Short measure was very bad for trade. As the

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growing season got going, setting out tomatoes, both indoors and outdoors,was bad for the back as was any form of planting out by hand, with leeksbeing the worst. Thankfully my fingers were never considered nimbleenough for pricking out bedding plants, this task being the preserve ofsome formidable ladies from whom all the laddies got a merciless ribbing,often including references which might now be loosely considered as sexeducation.

From Easter onwards weeding was the game; dockens, groundsel,dandelions, nettles, and a fast growing weed called fat hen all had to go,and all done with bare hands with pulled weeds carried to a pile to be driedand burnt. As an interlude of light relief, stringing up outdoor tomatoesand runner beans, singling various crops and constructing bird-scaringdevices were less mind numbing activities. The latter consisted ofsuspending a large sheet of corrugated iron in a tree with a lump of oldiron hanging against it, leading a long string of binder twine across theorchard to a central point. With several of these scarers installed, a heftyyank on the strings resulted in loud distant clanging, and hopefully thedeparture of the bird menace for a while. Cynics tended to suggest thenoise attracted the birds to come and see what all the noise was about.

In the school summer holidays the big picking bonanza got going.The ladies usually got to pick strawberries, and rasps, while men and olderlads got to scale long and cumbersome wooden ladders to pick plums,greengages and the ever popular but diminutive damsons which were apenance to pick as you needed to grab zillions of the little sods to make abasketful. Needless to say youngsters were never allowed to move theladders as they were a real handful and care was needed not to damagethe precious fruit trees. With their usual sadistic bent, the older men wouldsometimes carefully position a ladder for a boy so that it was right nextto a wasp nest, just to enjoy the howls if the jaggy bummers got annoyedat the intrusion. Not funny though revenge was often much worse,typically adding something nasty to the persecutors’ sandwiches on thequiet. Taking a bite into one`s cheesy piece and subsequently discoveringseveral halved hairy caterpillars or a big yellow slug can wreck the keenestof appetites!

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The picking of outdoor tomatoes was not a speedy job as theybruise so easily, so the clumsy brigade tended to move on to apples andpears, leaving the girls to work at ground level. Machinery was not a top priority with market gardeners on thegrounds of cost. Most had an old Cropmaster or Fordson N about theplace with the big timers flaunting grey Fergusons or Case tractors leftover from the wartime supply. Walk behind ploughs and implements suchas the British Anzani Iron Horse were favoured, and it was a big day forme to be allowed to use the Howard Gem rotavator for the first time undersupervision when the market gardener broke his arm in an industrialaccident that occurred between the pub and his home shortly after closingtime. As the days got shorter sprout picking, often by torchlight, wasthe norm and lasted almost until spring, with the cry of “forty nets ofsprouts today” haunting my mind for weeks. As Christmas drew near thetalk would turn to the short-term fate of a pen of large white geese andmore specifically who was up for plucking and drawing the brutes. I spenta miserable day in a freezing cold shed plucking geese and vowed neverto try that again. Arriving home covered in goose down and a visiblepopulation of fleas did not go down well with my Mum who had a horrorof what Dad called “mechanised dandruff.” Mum`s remonstrations withthe owner of the geese was short and to the point, much to my relief. But were they the good old days? In a way I suppose they were,maybe if for no better reason than to leave me with many memories ofsunny days, practical jokes, learning new skills, earning some cash, andfor someone in their early teens, a chance to be treated as a person ratherthan a nuisance, although I remained a pest until army discipline forcefullyshowed me the values of keeping a low profile. The big question mustsurely be – would I do it again? The answer to that is definitely a big yes.

Jim Bradley

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October Club Night

To me all club nights are good, a chance to meet up with my mates,tell tall stories, take the mick and generally have a nice time. Add to thata hefty breenge into the superb eats supplied by our gallant ladies,perchance even the chance of winning back the same bottle I put in theraffle several months previously; all in all well worth turning out on ablack cold night although there will always be times when motivation isa tad low.

But on club nights we all look forward to the guest speaker andover the years we have had some memorable evenings none less than ourlast October meeting when Neil Douglas gave us a detailed run down onthe fortunes (or otherwise) of the Claas machinery manufacturing empire.I use the term empire with care, as this has always been a family concern,free from the burden of making money for other folk, namely shareholders.This was a timely arrangement as the Claas outfit celebrated theircentenary in 2013.

With the aid of our skilful projector operator, Neil took us throughthe history of Claas. I won`t go into great detail as (a) I can`t rememberall that much of it; and (b) my delivery of any such information is ratherlike watching mould grow on cheese. Far from being a tedious recital ofmodel names and numbers, Neil took us through an era when the evolutionof farm machinery was fast, competitive and taking no prisoners. Thosewho did not keep up or fell behind in the race were swiftly absorbed intolarger companies or just quietly faded away.

The importance of the family business unit cannot be overstatedas it allowed the Claas family to try new avenues of innovation, cope withtheir mistakes and compete on equal terms with larger but often moreunwieldy corporations who viewed research and development as a drawon their profits. In fact Claas have so often been the “first to do it” in theirindustry that awards for excellence are now almost routine for them. Witha payroll of over 9,600 workers and a net income of 212.3 million eurosthis is indeed an international company and any country having a part ofthe Claas Empire based within its boundaries can think of it as a gold plateinvestment.

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By sticking to his main theme of the Claas centenary, Neil kepthis talk to a tight timetable, although finding plenty of space for wit andirony, one example of which concerned a rather boxy equal wheel largetractor which did not come up to muster for the Claas people and gotmoved on to Mercedes Benz who had a reasonable success with it as theirMB range; it is true, you can`t win them all.

All in all a very successful club evening enjoyed by around 40members with the added bonus of a good raffle and of course splendidrefreshments.

Jim Bradley

BVAA at Mindrum MillSunday 3rd November 2013

Well, we did it again, Sunday 3rd November was a bright clearcrisp day with a stiff breeze to keep the flies off our pieces. The venuekindly supplied by the Harvey family was a great big field that might haveaccommodated a match twice the size of our wee gathering. More or lessflat, but with the occasional large boulder to test men and machinery, theMindrum Mill site was well worth travelling a few extra miles beyond ourusual area of operations. We had a minor but inconvenient setback in thatthe promised portaloo was conspicuous by its absence. Suspecting theftwe called the police but they declined to investigate, saying they wouldhave nothing to go on. (oh!)

With only a few missing from the field of play, the match got goingright on time with opening cuts soon visible across the field. The judgesdid their stuff and it was clear a high standard of ploughing was inprospect; some said the stubble was low enough to have been cut with abinder, making the ploughmen`s task a lot easier. We had a good varietyof tractors and ploughs working away, although again we had no crawlertractors, this possibly due to the extra difficulty in shifting them aroundthe country. The hand tripped reversible class is growing in popularitywith Mr Ransomes` products enjoying their dominance in all classes.I will leave any detailed analysis of the actual ploughing scores to thosewho know about such matters, but as a layman, it all looked very good,

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and even to my untrained eye some of the regulars continue to improve.I have been attending ploughing matches as an envious spectator foraround ten years now and it is good to see some ploughmen inching upthe ratings year on year. This time it was my privilege to drive the judgefor the overall winner, Ian Anderson, as he made a careful study of theclass winners. His concise explanation of merit or otherwise wasinstructive and opened a new door on my understanding of ploughing forwhich I am grateful. Plot 26 narrowly got the decision and Robert Rodenof Dumfries went home a happy bloke.

As the day wore on there was no let up in the chilly wind; this hadthe effect of drying the tops of the turned furrows to give a nice visualeffect which enhanced good ploughing but also highlighted errors. Thejudges had kept up a good pace and for once we got the results out beforeit got dark. The raffle was expertly drawn by Charlie with a fair numberof winners assured of a merry post-ploughing evening. I won a bottle ofrum on the last draw which, being teetotal, I donated to Hamish whoassured it would be put to good use in the cold and flu season. Purelymedicinal I am told. As a club we have made our own improvements; the revampedplot-numbering job is a lot easier with the new pegs and their carriers.Recovering pegs at the end of a long day needs to work efficiently andthe latest moves are most welcome. Vintage ploughing is still alive andkicking as seen by a good entry this time, but before we get carried awaywith self congratulation it is important to note we had only two entrantsfor the novice class, indicating a need to draw younger ploughing menand women into this ancient craft before the main body of entrantsthemselves get too ancient.Results:-

Class 1 Trailed ploughs pre 1959

1st Ian Harvey, Mindrum. 2nd Bill Wood, Reston. 3rd George Riddell, Maxton.

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Class 2 Mounted ploughs pre 1959

1st Robert Roden, Dumfries. 2nd Stuart Bathgate, Dunbar. 3rd George Black, Earlston.

Class 3 Mounted Ploughs Classic

1st Keith Robertson, Lauder. 2nd John Bathgate, Dunbar. 3rd John Griffin, Kelso.

Class 4 Reversible

1st Keith Learmonth, Greenlaw. 2nd Garry Sands, Dunbar. 3rd Bruce Richardson, Kelso.

Class 5 Novice

1st Peter Chisholm, Kelso. 2nd Hamish Bain, Gordon.

The overall champion for the day was Robert Roden from Dumfries.

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Colin Hewetson completing his opening

George Riddell completing his crown

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Robin Forsyth working on his plot

William Turnbull making his opening

Text and Photos Jim Bradley

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BVAA Annual General Meeting 21st November 2013

Right, pay attention, this is a brief summary of our AGM held on21st November. We had a full turnout of committee, plus about 40members, which by normal AGM standards was a cracking goodattendance. Chairman Charlie McCririck got us off to a brisk start with arun-down of the Association activities since the last AGM. Charlie madea good start by referring us back to1976 when we had our first ever AGM.It was notable that at that time subs were one pound and fifty pence.

In brief just about everything undertaken by the BVAA over theyear worked either very well or brilliantly. Events included the coffeemorning at Sprouston, which goes from strength to strength, with the roadrun achieving its route with only a minimum of strays.

Again our rally was blessed with bearable weather and covered itscosts reasonably well. However the biggest success of the year was theBVAA input to the Border Union Show bi-centenary event. Be in nodoubt some very hard work was undertaken both in preparation and onthe big day and it paid off in spades.

Since that time we have staged our annual vintage ploughingmatch. This time the Harvey family at Mindrum Mill, on a fantastic fieldwhere even the rocks were friendly, generously hosted us. This wasfollowed by the Social Evening on 6th December at the Auld Cross KeysInn at Denholm where an excellent meal was enjoyed; although thehighlight of the evening was a certain Mr I. Rout laying on a demonstrationof the right way to sell raffle tickets in an inimitable style that saw a verybig increase in the proceeds! As the AGM went on, Charlie took us through the more mundanedetails including approving the previous minutes, followed by a financialreport by Bill Johnston and Kevin Sterrick who explained to us inunderstandable language that although our figures are down a little, ourbank balance and reserves are healthy and the club can go forward toanother year in which we might just build them up a little more. On thatnote, a motion was passed to raise our annual subscription to £12 and £10.This increase reflects the rising costs of such items as insurance, hiring of

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the Border Union Showground and not least of all the day to day runningof a successful club. Please note our subscriptions are significantly lowerthan many other similar clubs and we avoid charging for entries to therally or having to pay our growing band of helpers. Another aspect that no AGM can elude is the election of OfficeBearers and committee members. Thankfully our office bearers andcommittee have agreed to stand on for another year, for which all membersshould welcome. That said, it is an appropriate time to point out that thesewilling and loyal folk do have lives of their own and dare I say it, none ofthem are getting any younger. A time will come when we will need toreplace these folk and in the case of office bearers we should avoid havingto unexpectedly fill a vacuum left by anyone. We were delivered a seriouslesson when we sadly lost the services of Isabel Dagg, who was an assetto the BVAA, that we were maybe guilty of taking for granted. This mustnot happen again and it is now the right time to maybe encourage a fewfolk to get a little more closely involved in the Association business andeven understudy a current office bearer with a view of preservingcontinuity. Committee work is not arduous and if the work is shared outin a fair way, nobody will get stuck with too much to do. From experienceI can tell you that most of the time committee work is rewarding and fun,so have a think about it quite soon.

There is a plot in hand to stage an outing to look round the powerstation at Torness in the early summer. Davie Jamieson is the main manhere and he will get the job organised in good time. This will be a 2 hourtour, but security is tight and all those wishing to go will be required tofurnish some form of identity, so anyone who doesn`t know who they are,should take some remedial action. It will be an interesting trip and onenot likely to be repeated in the near future.

A little bit of business long overdue concerned a plan to acquireour own P.A. kit for events. A sum of money has become available sothe decision has been made to get a compact but powerful set-up if onlyto allow our Chairman to rest his voice a little during his excellent ringsidecommentary at the rally, as well as all other events. We also intend to getsome walkie talkie radios. These are a godsend in an emergency but alsoprovide assistance when marshalling traffic for the ring parade.

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At this time lack of space precludes anything other than a skimthrough what was a first class AGM in which a lot of valuable discussionand input from everyone maintained the good state of this club and pointedus towards another excellent year. In winding up the meeting, Chairman Charlie thanked everyonefor their attendance and contribution. He also made specific mention ofthe splendid work by Val and Joan who provide us with a fine refreshmenton club nights, the Royal British Legion (Scotland) Social Club forallowing us to use their function room, and in their absence all the guestspeakers who show up to entertain us during the winter months.

I apologise for any vital matter omitted from this summary of ourAGM, but I will maybe find a bit of time to finish the minutes of themeeting, which might hopefully fill in the gaps.

Jim Bradley

A Grey Fergie with a Difference

While wandering about the field at our annual vintage ploughingmatch I happened upon a grey Ferg that somehow seemed a bit differentto any of that breed I had seen in the past. The giveaway was the upsweptexhaust stack, which appeared to be on the wrong side of the bonnet. Beinga nosy devil, I struck up a conversation with David Little of Annan, theowner of this machine and all was revealed.

In basic terms David has owned the TED petrol/paraffin Ferg forsome time and had become a little weary of the somewhat placidperformance of the machine, which was no shame to it as it was around60 years old and probably on the original and untouched power unit. Tosome that might indicate a need for another tractor but to an experiencedagricultural engineer it was a challenge – something would have to bedone to make the TED a little livelier. Now all this might seem a little fanciful but add the informationthat a power unit from a Massey Ferguson 135 was languishing at the back

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of his workshop and you can guess the rest. For some it might appear asimple matter to wheak out the old unit and slot in the more modern item,but David assured me that was not the case. For starters, quite literally, amajor modification was required to the transmission housing toaccommodate the 135 starter motor, and I suspect the clutch needed someserious thought, not to mention research before things could be joinedtogether. The job did in fact take a lot longer than planned but only a lookat the excellence of workmanship will tell you why.

Strange Fergie

Followers of the Fergie faith will observe that fitting non standarddiesel units to grey Fergies is not exactly news, a three pot Perkinsconversion being very popular in the early to mid fifties. But that was nota pretty job as the bonnet had to be raised to fit the taller unit, thusproviding a trap for unwary knuckles grasping the steering wheel. To avoida repeat of that situation David set to and reduced the size of the fuel tankabove the engine by a fair old amount. After all, a day of vintage ploughingonly needs a gallon or so of juice and the modified tank holds a bit lessthan that, which allows a generous reserve. A 12-volt conversion went with the engine swap with a Lucasalternator making sure there was always a decent charge in the battery.Given the groaning and reluctant starting ritual of my own TED 20 I am

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beginning to find a degree of mischievous inspiration here for a 12-voltconversion of my own. It won`t be to the high standard of the David Littlejob but might do the trick for me.

Fergie at work

I stood awhile to see the TED135 in action and there is little doubtit has transformed the machine for vintage ploughing. Nice, very niceindeed. David suggested to me it is the only one of its type in existencebut the wise men of the tractor fraternity will maybe mind seeing one yearsago in some remote place that they should have bought at the time butdidn`t have the cash. The purists who sniff at any change to good ol`Harry`s specification might not approve, but far from spinning in his grave,the standard of this conversation makes me think he would have approved

Jim Bradley

Social Evening

Following an excellent night out at the Auld Cross Keys Inn,Denholm, last year, by popular demand we returned to the same venuethis year where we had an excellent night out! The crack was full ofhumour and nonsense as usual, the meal was hot, good and plentiful.

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Thanks to everyone’s generosity there was a really good raffle to benefitboth the club and the prize winners alike. What we do for next year wewill have to wait and see, but for this year it was a great success.

Charlie McCririck

December Meeting

A great night, well attended and enjoyed by all. We wereentertained by Jock Redburn who had an excellent collection of videos todisplay. Peering round the Legion’s Christmas tree we were met with suchsites including car crushing at Charlesfield, a scene not many of us havewitnessed, to the Scottish Ploughing Championships which were held atNisbet a few years ago. Evident from the shots were the extremes ofweather experienced. I was only there on the first day of ploughing; drivingrain resulted in headlands becoming almost impassable. The second day,what a difference, clear and bright!

Wanted

Rocker Cover for Massey Ferguson 3 cylinder Perkins diesel.Battery box with associated plate that supports the horizontal throttlelinkage rod.Call Elliot Smith on 01835 869918 if you can help.

Hay Meadow - help needed.

Would any member, help me out by cutting and bailing (square bales) a4 acre grass field, next summer. The field is flat with no obstructions andhas good access. I would gladly cover any fuel costs incurred. I live 1 mileto the northeast of Jedburgh.

I have a Massey 35 and would be glad to help in any way that I can.Call Elliot Smith on 01835 869918 if you can help.

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Events

Thursday 16th January.Eric Stores from County Durham is returning with more archived farmingphotos from bygone eras.Please remember and hand in your photos for next month’s competition.7.30pm in the Royal British Legion, St.Boswells.

Thursday 23rd January.Indoor bowling evening.7.30 pm in the Royal British Legion, St. Boswells

Thursday 20th FebruaryAnnual photographic competition. To be judged by Jim Wilson.7.30 pm in the Royal British Legion, St. Boswells

Tuesday 4th March.Old Twenties Parts Co. will be in attendance with a selection of parts aswell as Nick Battelle who will be speaking on his experiences!7.30 pm in the Royal British Legion, St. Boswells

Thursday 20th March.Allan Kellet will give a talk on vintage John Deere.7.30pm in the Royal British Legion, St.Boswells.

Saturday 22nd March.Working day and coffee morning at Sprouston village hall at 10.00am.

Friday 4th April.An evening visit to Torness Nuclear Power Station. Places are limited, socontact any committee member if interested. Security is tight so someform of photographic ID will be required along with your full personaldetails.

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Thursday 17th April.Show meeting 7.30pm in the Royal British Legion, St.Boswells.

Saturday 19th April.Annual charity tractor road run in aid of Macmillan nursing. Starting fromSt. Boswells green at 10.00 am we will wend our way, both on and offroad, towards Earlston for a lunch stop. The return will see us crossingBowden Moor to finish mid afternoon at “Bosells green”.

Saturday 17th MayVintage auction and car boot sale commencing 10.30 am. Only vintageitems including tools and ancillary items will be accepted. NOHOUSEHOLD GOODS. Evening entertainment from 7.30pm in the exhibition hall, BorderUnion Showground, Kelso.

Sunday 18th May.Annual vintage rally commencing 10.00am at the Border UnionShowground, Kelso.

Thursday 29th May“Greetin Meeting” 7.30 pm. Royal British Legion, St. Boswells.

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Surplus room in this newsletter has allowed space for a further twophotographs to be included. They were taken by Jim Bradley at this year’sploughing match.

David Little completing his plot.

Hamish Bain at the start of his ploughing day.