News — Alan Stennett

County is one of the great names of British agricultural and industrial machinery, with its innovative use of tracks and four-wheel drive mechanisms, mostly based on Ford and Fordson power units. The company was also a pioneer in the use of film as a promotional tool. This new two-volume DVD set makes use of all those surviving films, including some recently discovered items, to give a clear understanding of how they developed to become major manufacturers in their own right. Many of these films have never been available in their full length before, so County enthusiasts and others have a unique opportunity...

For this new DVD we’ve been out in the fields and factories of Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridge, where they Plant, Grow and Harvest crops like peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts and root veg as well as that other staple of the British diet, potatoes, ready to be sold to customers all over the country. This programme features a range of tractors in action including John Deere 6430, 6820, 6830, 6930, 6140, 7530, 7930, & 8430; New Holland T6020 & T7 270; Fendt 720 & 724; JCB Fastrac 2140 & 2155; all using a range of equipment for ground preparation, de-stoning, planting,...

The fourth volume in this award winning series features more films shot by working farmers and their staff, but also follows their crops into factories that turn it into processed foods. It ranges over half a century from idyllic 1939 harvest scenes of working horses, men and binders, through steam cultivation, vintage tractors and the early stages of mechanisation of crops like sugar beet and potatoes right up to 4-wheel drive articulated tractors in 1989. Along the way, we watch a wheelwright fitting steel rims to wooden cart wheels; work through reed cutting and thatching; look at how farmers attempted...