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Stop Press ! Updated Agm Information & Agm 2023 Minutes

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AGM 2023 Minutes

The AGM minutes from 2023 have been published in the Members Area .

AGM – Additional Visit local to AGM venue – Saturday 20th April 

After the AGM, member Simon Caudwell has kindly offered members the chance to look around his collection of steam ploughing tackle. Simon has the Fowler T1, a recently rebuilt Fowler living van, a cultivator, folding harrows and a water cart plus various old tractors and cars and an extensive workshop.
He is at Higher Ayshford Farm, Brimstone Lane, Westleigh, Tiverton  EX16 7EW which is about 8 miles from the AGM venue.  Simon will be at the AGM so anyone unsure of how to find him can get directions then!

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB AGM 20th April 2024 – MORNING, AFTERNOON VISITS and AGM ARRANGEMENTS - Updated
STEAM PLOUGH CLUB VISIT SUNDAY 21st APRIL - VISIT TO LEAKY FINDERS Ltd

Latest News

Second-hand - Books

Second Hand Books

A selection of second hand books is now available from the Shop Page. Although the books are second hand they are in good readable condition.  

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY Your Committee has started to plan for celebrations in 2026 to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Steam Plough Club.A range of options […]

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

Get Social #thesteamploughclub

The Steam Plough club is now on Social media.   Click on the Social media links to follow us.  Please share your steam Ploughing videos and photos on our pages. Our […]

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

A visit on Sunday 21st April to Leaky Finders Ltd of Exeter

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21st April – Sunday Visit

A morning visit has been arranged on Sunday 21st April from 10:00am to Leaky Finders Ltd of Exeter – locomotive boiler repairers and manufacturers.  Their main work is on the boilers of main line railway locomotives but they do also work on traction engines.

Address: The Antique Village, Exeter, EX5 4PW

Website: www.leakyfindersltd.co.uk

Leaky Finders would like a donation to one of their locos they are working on maybe

GWR Pannier 9629 which they recently bought.

 

Leaky Finders Ltd of Exeter visit Sunday 21st April 2024

Latest News

Second-hand - Books

Second Hand Books

A selection of second hand books is now available from the Shop Page. Although the books are second hand they are in good readable condition.  

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY Your Committee has started to plan for celebrations in 2026 to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Steam Plough Club.A range of options […]

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

Get Social #thesteamploughclub

The Steam Plough club is now on Social media.   Click on the Social media links to follow us.  Please share your steam Ploughing videos and photos on our pages. Our […]

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

Steam Plough Club Agm 2024 Updated Information 24/03/2024

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20th April – Morning, afternoon visit and AGM Arrangements

The AGM starts at 2.00pm

The morning visit and AGM are being held at Coldharbour Mill situated in Uffculme, Devon.  This is one of the oldest woollen mills in the UK having been in continuous production since 1797.  It has working and static exhibits and an 18th century water wheel – the biggest breast-shot waterwheel still in action in the UK.

Travel – EX15 3EE.  Car park on site.  Sean Symons is arranging transport from Tiverton Parkway station.  Please contact Sean if you would like this.  Alternatively Stagecoach Bus 373 (destination Cullompton) leave from the stop outside the station building at 09:07 10:09 11:08.  Journey time approximately 10 minutes.  The bus timetable ia below.

Site tour – Coldharbour Mill will run conducted tours at c.12:00 and 13:00 – up to 15 people per tour.  Machinery will be operating but the Mill will not be in steam.  Entry to the Mill will be free.

Refreshments – There is a café on site and there is a pub opposite the Mill.  The Mill will be providing tea and coffee after the AGM.

Displays – There will be a display of club archive photos.  Subject to weather Sean will bring items for display in the yard.  Modellers are also invited to bring items – please contact Sean if interested.

Sales – Various items from the club stocks will be available.

Website – www.coldharbourmill.org.uk

AGM – Additional Visit local to AGM venue – Saturday 20th April after the AGM

 
Member Simon Caudwell has kindly offered members the chance to look around his collection of steam ploughing tackle after the AGM.  Simon has the Fowler T1, a recently rebuilt Fowler living van, a cultivator, folding harrows and a water cart plus various old tractors and cars and an extensive workshop.
He is at Higher Ayshford Farm, Brimstone Lane, Westleigh, Tiverton  EX16 7EW which is about 8 miles from the AGM venue.  Simon will be at the AGM so anyone unsure of how to find him can get directions then!

 

Hotel Information for the local area

Padbrook Park Hotel

Padbrook Park

Cullompton

Devon

EX15 1RU

Website: www.padbrookpark.co.uk

Tel: 01884 836100

Travelodge Tiverton

Sampford Peverell Service Area

Tiverton

Sampford Peverell

Devon

EX16 7HD

Website: www.travelodge.co.uk

Tel: 0871 984 6057

Waterloo Cross by Marston’s Inns

Uffculme

Cullompton

Devon

EX15 3ES

Tel: 01884 840328

Website: www.marstonsinns.co.uk/inns/waterloo-cross-hotel-cullompton

Bus Information

Stagecoach Bus 373 (destination Cullompton) leave from the stop outside the station building at 09:08 10:08 11:08 .  Journey time approximately 10 minutes.  When the bus enters Uffculme village it turns left and you want the first stop after the bus has turned.   Get off the bus and cross the road and walk down Russet Close.  You will see Coldharbour Mill which is a few minutes walk.

Return buses leave from the opposite side of the road (destination Tiverton) at 16:15 17:15.   The buses do a double run into the village on each journey so do not be troubled by seeing your bus pass by a few months earlier going the opposite way!

Steam Plough Club Annual General Meeting 2024

 

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB AGM 20th April 2024 – MORNING, AFTERNOON VISITS and AGM ARRANGEMENTS - Updated
STEAM PLOUGH CLUB VISIT SUNDAY 21st APRIL - VISIT TO LEAKY FINDERS Ltd

Latest News

Second-hand - Books

Second Hand Books

A selection of second hand books is now available from the Shop Page. Although the books are second hand they are in good readable condition.  

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY

STEAM PLOUGH CLUB 60TH ANNIVERSARY Your Committee has started to plan for celebrations in 2026 to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Steam Plough Club.A range of options […]

NEWScreenshot 2024-02-05 at 08.32.48

Get Social #thesteamploughclub

The Steam Plough club is now on Social media.   Click on the Social media links to follow us.  Please share your steam Ploughing videos and photos on our pages. Our […]

Screenshot 2024-02-02 at 07.54.21

Blueprints Steam Ahead – Engineering Drawings Inspire New Product Range

The following news regarding was released by MERL on 21st November 2023:-

As we launch a new range of bespoke products inspired by the engineering drawings held in the MERL archives, Principal Archivist, Caroline Gould, looks at what makes this one of our most consulted collections and we share an insight from an enthusiast into how the collection has helped with their personal project.

Over the last few months, colleagues working in archives, retail and marketing have been delving into the archives of the MERL and Special Collections to look for striking images to create new product ranges for the MERL gift shop. With the breadth of beautiful artwork and ephemera in the collections ranging from Suttons Seeds to the De La Rue archive, we are spoilt for choice, and have a list of potential collections to feature that would fill a department store! So the inspiration for our new range comes from what is maybe an unlikely source: we are about to launch a new range of shop products featuring, wait for it… agricultural manufacturers engineering drawings of steam engines, road rollers and road locomotives!

Blueprints Steam Ahead – Engineering Drawings Inspire New Product Range

Perhaps it is not such a surprising choice, however, when you consider that over 100,000 engineering drawings are held in The MERL archives and that they are amongst the most popular series of records requested by researchers. The records relate to companies such as Charles Burrell and Sons Limited, John Fowler and Co. (Leeds) Ltd, Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Ltd, Marshall, Sons and Co. Ltd and Wallis and Steevens Ltd. Model makers and steam engine enthusiasts contact us as they work on restoration projects, refurbishing their engines using the engineering drawings for their original purpose.

Many enthusiasts also use the production records of the archives to find out the history of their steam engine: Who was the first owner? Where was it shipped to? When was the engine built? The firms exported products all over the world, Europe, America, India, China, Chile, Australia and New, Zealand. So we receive requests from all of the world.

We are always delighted to see the results of projects which have used our collections. For example, model maker George King has used the archives to create a range of models including a Fowler Superba Plough engine. 

The model of a Fowler Superba engine made by George King.
The model of a Fowler Superba engine made by George King.

For more images of this model www.georgekingwoodturner.co.uk/plough-engine-project-1

The blueprint for Fowler engine - reference TR_FOW_DO1_S1021-458
The blueprint for Fowler engine – reference TR_FOW_DO1_S1021-458

The Blueprints Range is available in the MERL Gift Shop and to order from our new online shop.

We are always trying to improve access to archives held at The MERL. Currently we are working on two projects relating to the agricultural manufacturing archives. Our Paper Conservator, Victoria Stevens, is undertaking a conservation survey to assess the John Fowler and Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies archive for items that require conservation care. Sharon Maxwell, Archivist and Emma Hunt, Archives Assistant are working with Beaulieu Motor Museum to digitise the 16mm reel to reel product publicity films for Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies. The films will then be catalogued and be available in the Reading Room.

We are grateful for the support and expertise we have received from The Road Locomotive Society, Steam Plough Club and the National Traction Engine Trust who have supported us creating access to these incredible archives for many years.

More information about the archives held at The MERL can be found on our website:

If you have an enquiry or wish to consult the archive, please email merl@reading.ac.uk to book an appointment in the Reading Room

Memories of Patten engines

A Review Of Barry J. Finch’s Publication “Memories Of John Patten’s Ploughing Engines” By James Hodgson.

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A Review Of Barry J. Finch’s Publication “Memories Of John Patten’s Ploughing Engines” By James Hodgson.

A review of Barry J. Finch’s publication “MEMORIES OF JOHN PATTEN’S PLOUGHING ENGINES” by James Hodgson.

“This is a great record both of ploughing engines in their ‘working clothes’ – the chains hanging off the back of the tender, the mole draining rope laced through the back wheel hub, the straw bale on the steersman’s stand ready for lighting up the next day – and of the ploughing crews – the clothes, the caps, the cigarettes! 

The photographs also reward close study – the bent handrail on Prince and the later shot showing the plough pulled in so close that it probably happened again, the makeshift toolbox behind the crankshaft, the coiling gear always running true, the cultivator with all bar one point removed (why was that?), the plough with only two people on board.

The pictures of the dispersal sale are quite poignant and bring back memories of the Philp sale 36 years later.  It is always interesting to look at the prices fetched.  The pair of Windsor and Sandringham made £460 – this is equivalent to £13,980 in today’s money.  The cultivator from the set of BB’s made the highest price of the day of £420, equivalent to £12,800 now.  And to close, Barry’s original, smaller book ‘Ploughing Engines at Work’ was priced at 3 shillings and sixpence which is now £5 – so for a little more money you get more pictures of a larger size at better resolution – bargain!”.

James Hodgson

MEMORIES OF JOHN PATTEN’S PLOUGHING ENGINES is priced at £12.00 including P&P and now available from the shop.

PayPal Now Added to SPC Shop

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It is now even easier to buy items from the Steam Plough Club Shop.

Most items can now be purchased through PayPal.  A few items are shown below, visit the shop to add these to your basket and view all available items.

 

 

 

 

 
PayPal Now Added to SPC Shop
PayPal Now Added to SPC Shop
PayPal Now Added to SPC Shop
PayPal Now Added to SPC Shop
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The 72nd British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival 14th/15th October

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The 72nd British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival, Bishop’s Lydeard, near Taunton, Somerset, by kind permission of the K. S. Coles and Family. Over 250 top ploughmen and women from all over Great Britain will compete. There will be something for everyone alongside the ploughing competitions, from steam ploughing engines; vintage tractors and machinery displays; manufacturers and local dealers demonstrating the latest farm equipment available; agricultural trade stands; hedgelaying displays and competitions; shopping stalls and country crafts. And there will be 18 pairs of heavy horses at work ploughing each day. Look out for the Steam Plough Club sales team!
More at British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival



The 72nd British National Ploughing Championships & Country Festival 14th/15th October

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