Vintage Horticultural & Garden Machinery Club’s Working Day

Posted by Chris Graham on 14th March 2023

Peter Love previews the Vintage Horticultural & Garden Machinery Club’s Working Day, taking place in Stanfield, Norfolk, this month.

Horticultural & Garden Machinery: Great to see this very original David Bradley working away in its class. (Pic: Peter Love)

The Vintage Horticultural & Garden Machinery Club’s latest Working Day is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 19th at Stanfield, in Norfolk.

This will be the 13th running of this event, and it’s being put together with the Norfolk Starting Handle Club. Each year the organisers aim to make the event bigger and better, and this year visitors will be able to enjoy seeing a large selection of working machinery/activities from push hoes and rotavators to match ploughing with classes for small walk-behind, large walk-behind and ride-ons, vintage and compact.

Spotted at the 2022 event was this very rare Commer PBCM pick-up with Perkins diesel engine. (Pic: Peter Love)

The new venue will see the best ploughing conditions since the event started, thanks to better land. There will also be working stationary engines, working horses and static displays. The organisers like to encourage the smaller tillage machines as well as the juniors by having a working ‘play pen’. As we’re all aware, horticultural ploughing is changing and we’re seeing the use of more compact tractors of all sizes, most of which are over 40 years old. However, all types and ages are welcome, but the organisers do try and encourage the older, vintage machines as their continued use is the reason why the event started back in 2009.

There are always plenty of stationary engines at this event – bring yours along! (Pic: Peter Love)

This year the show welcomes back Wycomb Pastures Petting Farm which is always a family favourite. New for 2023 is a tombola along with the grand raffle and a small selection of stalls. The event is proudly sponsored by FTC Plant & Tools Hire & Sales, which will be offering visitors a chance to see the more modern horticultural equipment which they have to offer.

This little Italian, Alfa Romeo tractor was produced between the early 1930s to the early 1950s, and a number have come to the UK and Ireland in preservation times, mostly from France. (Pic: Peter Love)

The event will start at 10am, on the B1145 at Stanfield. Proceeds will be donated to the East Anglian Air Ambulance and Stanfield church. For further details, contact Adrian Hall by calling 01328 851571, or send an email to: stevenhall272@aol.com.

This news item comes from the latest issue of Old Glory, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE