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Club Nights are back.
See the "Events" page for more details.
Merton road run 11/07/2021.
This year's Merton road run was another great success, organised by Steve Holmes and his team. 49 tractors and 1 Land Rover completed the route of just over 24 miles without any breakdowns! The weather was warm and dry. A great day for all! Steve and Dawn send a very big THANK YOU to all of the drivers, traffic marshal's, tea and coffee makers, "booker inners" and raffle ticket sellers. This event raised £1570.00 for Steve and Dawn's nominated charity, The Brodey Cancer Centre in Banbury.
Merton road run 14/04/2019.
The Merton road run raised £785.00 for Cancer Research. The weather stayed dry, cold but dry! Steve Holmes planned the route which covered 24 miles. Steve's team did an excellent job, as always with pre and post run refreshments including lunch. 48 tractors and 1 Land Rover completed the route. The video can be found on this link Merton road run 2019 video. A big thanks to Steve and his team for another great day.
Club night 06/11/2018.
Our speaker for the evening was Nick Battelle from the Old 20 Parts Company. Nick showed us several videos of the Fordson / Ford Tractor Demonstration Team in action. The videos covered the team from the time of the Fordson E1A Major through to the Series 10 and the 144 hour ploughing marathon, which had, by pure coinicidence, started 35 years ago exactly. We also had a snapshot of future developments. It was also interesting to see the trucks used by the team from the Thames Trader through to the IVECO Turbo Star via Ford D Series, Ford Cargo and the one time flagship of the Ford truck range the Transcontinental.
A very enjoyable presentation laced with anecdotes and humour. Nick spoke of the current activities of the Old 20 Parts Company brining to our attention some of the unique benefits the company has to offer its customers. Plenty of the various catalogues that Nick made available were taken away for further reading!
BVTC Ploughing Match at New House Farm 16/09/2018.
In a stark contrast to last year's match the ground was VERY dry and incredibly hard. Undeterred the day saw 31 competitors take up the challenge. The ground resisting numerous attempts to get the ploughs in let alone make a decent furrow! A further 21 entrants settled for having a go in the non competitive "playground" area. This area providing an opportunity to test your skills, and your tractor & plough or cultivator, without fear of losing points.
Our thanks to Derek Hedges and his team of judges for their hard work and eagle eyes.
Big BIG thanks to Jackie Bagnall, her family and stalwart team of tea pourers, cake makers, pork roasters, raffle organisers, game makers etc etc... Not forgettting providing the actual venue itself. A great day spent with great friends all served up with great food!
This popular event raised £1,865.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
Link to YouTube video of the match, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vef8qdQf0BY
Club night 04/09/2018.
Our guest speaker was wildlife photographer Chris Ward. Chris gave an excellent talk on wildlife in the UK explaining how some species have flourished whilst others have declined, how some species arrived in the UK to begin with and some of the influences on wildlife in general. Environment, climate change and man all have a role to play.
Chris illustrated his talk with some of his amazing photographs, with some stunning close ups. To see more of his work go to www.cwardphotography.co.uk
Updates.
Club night Tuesday, 04/09/2018 our first meeting after the summer break.
BVTC Events page now updated.
July 3rd club night cancelled.
Due to circumstances beyond the club's control it has become necessary to cancel our meeting this coming Tuesday, July 3rd. It is hoped we can reschedule for another date in July, if this is possible we will let you all know as soon as we can.
Club night 01/05/2018.
Medical detection dogs, WOW! Frazer brought two "Ambassadogs" with him to give us an excellent presentation of the successful work that these dogs do and the potential uses that might lay ahead. Bio detection dogs live with people just the same as any other pet dog, but they go to work at the laboratory during the day. Their work involves sniffing samples of human urine taken from those with possible conditions such as prostate cancer. The level of accuracy the dogs achieve far exceeds most of the existing methods. Research into the detection of other conditions such as Parkinson's Disease and malaria along with animal cancers continues.
Medical alert dogs live and work with people suffering from conditions such as type 1 diabetes, Addison's disease, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), severe nut allergies plus others. These dogs alert the individual as soon as they detect the most minute change of odour emitted. Or in the case of severe nut allergies the presence of the allergen. Even if the dog is asleep at the moment of change it wakes up and alerts the individual. This allows the person to take preventative action. These dogs change lives by a huge reduction of life threatening episodes, hospital visits, ambulance call outs etc.
Medical detection dogs, truly amazing creatures.
www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk
Club night 03/04/2018.
Our guest speaker Jeff Byron gave a detailed presentation of his life and career from sitting the 11 Plus exam to his employment in the North sea oil and gas extraction industry.
As extraction technology advanced under sea reserves previously deemed too small to make extraction viable were put into production. The numbers were all big, depths, weights, costs and quantities of crude oil to name a few.
Our thanks to Jeff for this insight of an industry many of us knew little about.
Club night 06/03/2018.
Our guest speaker. Kevin Varty, presented his slide show titled "Sex, drugs and tapeworms". Advertisements dating from the Victorian era provided much humor. The variety of products included things like electric underwear, loaded revolvers "safe" enough to let children play with them, an array of lotions and potions containing significant portions of cocaine and heroine, right through to tapeworms for weight loss! There is little doubt that they would all struggle to get past advertising standards today. An eye opener indeed! Thanks to Kevin for this humorous insight.
Latest news. 11/02/2018.
Trip to the Imperial War Museum Duxford. A coach trip is planned for Sunday 15th April. Cost £12.95 Plus coach fee. Please let Jean know so that a coach can be booked.
www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford
Club night 06/02/2018.
Our guest speaker was Oberon Praties who gave us an informative presentation about water recycling. Oberon explained the evolution of sewage, rain water handling and their processing from its very beginning through to current methods. The modern process concludes with, the difficult to imagine step, of "polishing". The sewers can cope with the 3 P's, Pee, Poo and Paper. But things like wet wipes, cotton buds and disposable nappies are frequently the cause of blockages! Our thanks to Oberon for this evening, also thanks to John Anderson for arranging it.
The Barton road run 29/12/2017.
Despite some pretty grim weather, rain, sleet, cold wind etc, over 30 tractors turned up, including plenty of BVTC members. The 30 mile route was covered in about 3 hours, (with Richard M leading it was never going to be a sedate trundle...) giving everyone plenty of time to partake in the excellent spread of home made cakes, jacket potatoes etc. Well done to all concerned for organising such a successful event which raised £600.00. The organisers say they are planning to make this a regular feature on the calendar.
Club night 05/12/2017.
Our annual quiz night was very well attended including guest teams from our neighbouring clubs. Plenty of head scratching combined with good humoured disputes over what the correct answer was, plus food rounded off a very enjoyable evening.
Club night 07/11/2017.
Our guest speaker was Phil Brooks of Kubota UK's Agricultural Division. Phil gave a very interesting presentation covering key points of Kubota's history, present position and vision of the future. Kubota continue to develop and strengthen their position as a global manufacturer of agricultural tractors, and implements. Their tractor ranges will continue to grow in both power and sophistication. Phil gave us plenty of facts and figures to ponder, one in particular was that a Kubota engine is produced every 58 Seconds! Phil was accompanied by his colleague Johnathan Rook. Our thanks to both of them for their time spent preparing and delivering this presentation.
Quiz at Princes Risborough Club 14/12/2017.
Our fiends at Princes Risborough Club are holding a quiz night Thursday 14th December, please let Jean know if you'd like to go along.
A date for your diaries, 29/12/2017.
The details for the Steeple Barton road run are, gather at Leys Farm, Steeple Barton, OX7 7DP 8:30 am to sign in ready to start 09:30. £5.00 per tractor & driver. Hot food & refreshments will be available to purchase. All proceeds will be split between Cancer Research and the Enstone Junior Young Farmers Club. Contact Richard Long 07526 477 012 or rslong611@btinternet.com to book your place.
Ludgershall Road Run. 22/10/2017.
A sunny Sunday morning saw 35 tractors cover a very enjoyable 25 miles through an ever changing autumn landscape. On our return the fish & chip van was ready and waiting, and very good fish & chips they were too. The tea & coffee flowed along with plenty of post road run banter. Our club Chairman, Jim, along with his support team did an excellent job all round. Thank you to all those who were able to join us on this event.
Latest news. 27/09/2017.
A group of over 20 members & guests visited Heygates Mill at Bugbrook. For more about this visit go to our Visits review section.
Latest news. 25/09/2017.
Duxford visit postponed until the spring.
BVTC Ploughing Match at New House Farm 17/09/2017.
Another great event. The rain just about held off for the day, although the previous 24 hours had seen heavy rain which made the soil stick to mouldboards and wellies alike! Despite the challenging nature of the soil conditions there was still plenty of good ploughing to be seen.
Our hosts for the match were Jackie Bagnall & Family, many thanks for allowing the BVTC to invade your farm for the day.
The food was excellent in quality and plentiful in quantity. Our thanks go to Jackie and all of her team for taking care of the catering. For any body who didn't partake in the roast pork rolls, you really did miss out. As for the cakes the variety I sampled, strictly for editorial purposes of course, was superb.
Our Judges for the match were Derek Hedges, Bob Wilbury and Geoff Thompson. Our thanks to them for bringing their knowledge and experience to the match.
A variety of tractors were to be seen in action including Allis Chalmers, County, Ford, Ferguson, Universal, International Harvester, Muir Hill, Fordson, Massey Ferguson and McCormick. Ploughs,mounted, trailed and semi mounted types, of all ages made by Ransomes, Ferguson, Dowdeswell, Rabe and David Brown were in action. Thanks to all of those ploughing for keeping going when the soil simply refused to flow. Regular stopping and scraping off being the order of the day.
The raffle and auction were both very well supported. Thank you to both everyone who generously donated prizes and the buyers and bidders.
The event raised the commendable sum of over £1885.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
All in all an excellent and very enjoyable day.
Heygates Mill visit.
Wednesday 27th September. Please arrive 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Heygates & Sons Ltd, Bugbrooke Mills, Northampton, NN7 3QH.
Website link added. 17/08/2017.
Just added a link to a website dedicated to David Brown Tractors. Contains a lot of information as you would expect from the title page "David Brown Tractors 1936-1988- The complete story." It is well written, highly detailed and, a treat for the DB enthusiasts.
Club night 02/05/2017.
"Steam power, Britain's gift to the world". Our guest speaker Michael Lee gave us a comprehensive look at all things steam powered and their influence on efficiency and economy in many industries. Starting with the men responsible for the birth and early developments of steam power, Savery, Newcomen, Trevithick and Watt. Michael's presentation covered fixed and portable steam engines, railway locomotives, traction engines, steam rollers, cars, trucks not forgetting river boats and ocean liners right through to nuclear power stations. A very informative talk providing plenty of reminders from a time when Britain was "The workshop of the world".
Steeple Barton road run, 01/05/2017.
A BIG thumbs up to Steve Phipps and Richard Long for independently organising this excellent event. 51 Tractors turned up. The route included plenty of off highway miles to get right into the Oxfordshire countryside. The Black Boy Pub at Milton was the venue for some mid run refreshment. The weather was mixed but no huge downpours. The catering was in the safe hands of Kim, Sharon and Carrie who all ensured nobody went hungry! This popular event raised £950.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. There were plenty of comments after the run about how well organised and how enjoyable it was. Well done to Steve, Richard and team, for another great day.
Merton road run photographs 12/04/2017.
A new gallery has been added with photographs of the Merton road run.
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
What an amazing day, brilliant sunshine all of the way, 60 tractors turned up for the event and over £1060.00 has been raised, so far, for Steve's nominated charity, Cancer research. Steve Holmes and his team once again organised this very successful road run. The route was over 20 miles through some of the very best English countryside. It passed through, in no particular order, Ambrosden, Merton, Wendlebury, Weston On The Green, Bletchingdon, Kirtlington, Enslow, Hampton Poyle, Islip, Cassington and Charlton On Otmoor. Due to the very high temperatures it was only proper that two refreshment stops were made. The first was at the Rock of Gibraltar and the second at the Crown in Charlton.
Steve thanks all of the helpers including Dawn, Gary, Jamie, Gilbert, Cath, Jean and Anne for their hard work and support. As always all attending were very well fed and watered. Steve wishes to thank all of the drivers and their supporters, along with everyone else who made it a very memorable event.
Courtesy of the sunshine Thomas Hogg has got a new look, not too sure that the "Boiled lobster" look will catch on though.....
We have now enjoyed three consecutive road runs with sunshine all the way, even if the 2nd January Finmere road run didn't get the mercury very far up the scale! Fingers crossed for the Barton road run on May 1st.
Last but by no means least, HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY STEVE!
Barton Road Run 01/05/2017.
More details have been added in the events section. 29/03/2017.
Duxford trip.
No date has been set, but mid May is looking possible. Let Jean know if you want to go.
Drivers day 23/04/2017.
The Risborough and District Historical Farm Machinery Club are holding a "Drivers day" Sunday 23rd April. Contact Jim Goss for details.
Club night 07/03/2017.
We were pleased to welcome Nick Ashman Territory Manager for John Deere, Grass & Turf. Nick presented the outline history of the company which was started by John Deere a jobbing blacksmith in 1837. The growth and evolution of the company and its products along with some mind boggling facts and figures all featured in Nicks presentation. We also learnt how very close John Deere were to establishing a factory in Scotland in the early 1950's. John Deere remains an independent company and has never been owned by any other company of any kind. John Deere also has its own bank. Nicks talk was illustrated with plenty of photographs of the products and activities of the company over the years.
Our thanks to Nick for giving us an informative and interesting presentation. Also thanks to Paul Dunning for his part in arranging this.
The BVTC Website.
The BVTC website was briefly out of action in February, all sorted out now. We've gained capacity to put more photographs on the site. Our previous capacity for photographs was 200, we can now have up to 750, so get snapping and send them in.
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
We are now less than one month away please let Jean know if you are going, numbers required for food. We are looking to get 60 tractors on this road run to mark Steve Holmes 60th Birthday. More details have been added to the events page "Road run" section
Club night 07/02/2017.
Due to unforeseen circumstances our guest speaker for the evening was unable to be with us. Our thanks go to Richard Newman for stepping in and providing us with a DVD looking back at the early days of farm mechanisation.
A couple of updates are now in the road runs section, and shows & rallies section of the events page.
Banbury & District Vintage Ploughing Society will be holding a Quiz Night Thursday 23rd March. www.bdvps.co.uk
Sunday lunch 22/01/2017.
This event saw members along with their families and friends fill the Fox & Hounds at Ardley to indulge in a Sunday lunch. What a lunch it was too! The food was excellent, and judging by the number of empty plates it was widely enjoyed! The roast beef was in a class of its own attracting many comments the like of "it melts in your mouth". The desserts were outstanding! Great venue, great food and great company to share it all. A very big thank you to our hosts Clive & Kellie who, assisted by their staff, made it a Sunday lunch to remember!
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
Go to events section for full details.
Finmere road run 02/01/2017.
Another great road run! The sun shone all day long, no disputing that is was still a very cold day though! 27 Tractors were on the run, the route took us through 20 miles of crisp and fresh countryside and not a turkey sandwich in sight! Our hosts for the day, Coulsden Old Vehicle Engineering Society, COVES, looked after us very well as usual! They prepared the bacon rolls for us prior to setting off, rumour has it that we got through 7kg of rashers!! On our return we enjoyed soup and rolls etc. A good number of folk enjoyed the "bracing" ride on the passenger trailer, no reports of frostbite! Our thanks go to Paul Chambers, Steve, Johnny and Derek for organising this event. We must also thank Denzil for "Traffic control", that really did make things a lot easier! Thanks for doing a top job Denzil! Thanks again to our superb hosts, Gordon, Pete, Mark and John, COVES. By the end of the day we'd raised a total of £362.00. A great fun day all round! If you have any photographs of the day you'd like to share, please email them to me, bvtc.ontheweb@gmail.com
See the "Events" page for more details.
Merton road run 11/07/2021.
This year's Merton road run was another great success, organised by Steve Holmes and his team. 49 tractors and 1 Land Rover completed the route of just over 24 miles without any breakdowns! The weather was warm and dry. A great day for all! Steve and Dawn send a very big THANK YOU to all of the drivers, traffic marshal's, tea and coffee makers, "booker inners" and raffle ticket sellers. This event raised £1570.00 for Steve and Dawn's nominated charity, The Brodey Cancer Centre in Banbury.
Merton road run 14/04/2019.
The Merton road run raised £785.00 for Cancer Research. The weather stayed dry, cold but dry! Steve Holmes planned the route which covered 24 miles. Steve's team did an excellent job, as always with pre and post run refreshments including lunch. 48 tractors and 1 Land Rover completed the route. The video can be found on this link Merton road run 2019 video. A big thanks to Steve and his team for another great day.
Club night 06/11/2018.
Our speaker for the evening was Nick Battelle from the Old 20 Parts Company. Nick showed us several videos of the Fordson / Ford Tractor Demonstration Team in action. The videos covered the team from the time of the Fordson E1A Major through to the Series 10 and the 144 hour ploughing marathon, which had, by pure coinicidence, started 35 years ago exactly. We also had a snapshot of future developments. It was also interesting to see the trucks used by the team from the Thames Trader through to the IVECO Turbo Star via Ford D Series, Ford Cargo and the one time flagship of the Ford truck range the Transcontinental.
A very enjoyable presentation laced with anecdotes and humour. Nick spoke of the current activities of the Old 20 Parts Company brining to our attention some of the unique benefits the company has to offer its customers. Plenty of the various catalogues that Nick made available were taken away for further reading!
BVTC Ploughing Match at New House Farm 16/09/2018.
In a stark contrast to last year's match the ground was VERY dry and incredibly hard. Undeterred the day saw 31 competitors take up the challenge. The ground resisting numerous attempts to get the ploughs in let alone make a decent furrow! A further 21 entrants settled for having a go in the non competitive "playground" area. This area providing an opportunity to test your skills, and your tractor & plough or cultivator, without fear of losing points.
Our thanks to Derek Hedges and his team of judges for their hard work and eagle eyes.
Big BIG thanks to Jackie Bagnall, her family and stalwart team of tea pourers, cake makers, pork roasters, raffle organisers, game makers etc etc... Not forgettting providing the actual venue itself. A great day spent with great friends all served up with great food!
This popular event raised £1,865.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
Link to YouTube video of the match, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vef8qdQf0BY
Club night 04/09/2018.
Our guest speaker was wildlife photographer Chris Ward. Chris gave an excellent talk on wildlife in the UK explaining how some species have flourished whilst others have declined, how some species arrived in the UK to begin with and some of the influences on wildlife in general. Environment, climate change and man all have a role to play.
Chris illustrated his talk with some of his amazing photographs, with some stunning close ups. To see more of his work go to www.cwardphotography.co.uk
Updates.
Club night Tuesday, 04/09/2018 our first meeting after the summer break.
BVTC Events page now updated.
July 3rd club night cancelled.
Due to circumstances beyond the club's control it has become necessary to cancel our meeting this coming Tuesday, July 3rd. It is hoped we can reschedule for another date in July, if this is possible we will let you all know as soon as we can.
Club night 01/05/2018.
Medical detection dogs, WOW! Frazer brought two "Ambassadogs" with him to give us an excellent presentation of the successful work that these dogs do and the potential uses that might lay ahead. Bio detection dogs live with people just the same as any other pet dog, but they go to work at the laboratory during the day. Their work involves sniffing samples of human urine taken from those with possible conditions such as prostate cancer. The level of accuracy the dogs achieve far exceeds most of the existing methods. Research into the detection of other conditions such as Parkinson's Disease and malaria along with animal cancers continues.
Medical alert dogs live and work with people suffering from conditions such as type 1 diabetes, Addison's disease, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), severe nut allergies plus others. These dogs alert the individual as soon as they detect the most minute change of odour emitted. Or in the case of severe nut allergies the presence of the allergen. Even if the dog is asleep at the moment of change it wakes up and alerts the individual. This allows the person to take preventative action. These dogs change lives by a huge reduction of life threatening episodes, hospital visits, ambulance call outs etc.
Medical detection dogs, truly amazing creatures.
www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk
Club night 03/04/2018.
Our guest speaker Jeff Byron gave a detailed presentation of his life and career from sitting the 11 Plus exam to his employment in the North sea oil and gas extraction industry.
As extraction technology advanced under sea reserves previously deemed too small to make extraction viable were put into production. The numbers were all big, depths, weights, costs and quantities of crude oil to name a few.
Our thanks to Jeff for this insight of an industry many of us knew little about.
Club night 06/03/2018.
Our guest speaker. Kevin Varty, presented his slide show titled "Sex, drugs and tapeworms". Advertisements dating from the Victorian era provided much humor. The variety of products included things like electric underwear, loaded revolvers "safe" enough to let children play with them, an array of lotions and potions containing significant portions of cocaine and heroine, right through to tapeworms for weight loss! There is little doubt that they would all struggle to get past advertising standards today. An eye opener indeed! Thanks to Kevin for this humorous insight.
Latest news. 11/02/2018.
Trip to the Imperial War Museum Duxford. A coach trip is planned for Sunday 15th April. Cost £12.95 Plus coach fee. Please let Jean know so that a coach can be booked.
www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford
Club night 06/02/2018.
Our guest speaker was Oberon Praties who gave us an informative presentation about water recycling. Oberon explained the evolution of sewage, rain water handling and their processing from its very beginning through to current methods. The modern process concludes with, the difficult to imagine step, of "polishing". The sewers can cope with the 3 P's, Pee, Poo and Paper. But things like wet wipes, cotton buds and disposable nappies are frequently the cause of blockages! Our thanks to Oberon for this evening, also thanks to John Anderson for arranging it.
The Barton road run 29/12/2017.
Despite some pretty grim weather, rain, sleet, cold wind etc, over 30 tractors turned up, including plenty of BVTC members. The 30 mile route was covered in about 3 hours, (with Richard M leading it was never going to be a sedate trundle...) giving everyone plenty of time to partake in the excellent spread of home made cakes, jacket potatoes etc. Well done to all concerned for organising such a successful event which raised £600.00. The organisers say they are planning to make this a regular feature on the calendar.
Club night 05/12/2017.
Our annual quiz night was very well attended including guest teams from our neighbouring clubs. Plenty of head scratching combined with good humoured disputes over what the correct answer was, plus food rounded off a very enjoyable evening.
Club night 07/11/2017.
Our guest speaker was Phil Brooks of Kubota UK's Agricultural Division. Phil gave a very interesting presentation covering key points of Kubota's history, present position and vision of the future. Kubota continue to develop and strengthen their position as a global manufacturer of agricultural tractors, and implements. Their tractor ranges will continue to grow in both power and sophistication. Phil gave us plenty of facts and figures to ponder, one in particular was that a Kubota engine is produced every 58 Seconds! Phil was accompanied by his colleague Johnathan Rook. Our thanks to both of them for their time spent preparing and delivering this presentation.
Quiz at Princes Risborough Club 14/12/2017.
Our fiends at Princes Risborough Club are holding a quiz night Thursday 14th December, please let Jean know if you'd like to go along.
A date for your diaries, 29/12/2017.
The details for the Steeple Barton road run are, gather at Leys Farm, Steeple Barton, OX7 7DP 8:30 am to sign in ready to start 09:30. £5.00 per tractor & driver. Hot food & refreshments will be available to purchase. All proceeds will be split between Cancer Research and the Enstone Junior Young Farmers Club. Contact Richard Long 07526 477 012 or rslong611@btinternet.com to book your place.
Ludgershall Road Run. 22/10/2017.
A sunny Sunday morning saw 35 tractors cover a very enjoyable 25 miles through an ever changing autumn landscape. On our return the fish & chip van was ready and waiting, and very good fish & chips they were too. The tea & coffee flowed along with plenty of post road run banter. Our club Chairman, Jim, along with his support team did an excellent job all round. Thank you to all those who were able to join us on this event.
Latest news. 27/09/2017.
A group of over 20 members & guests visited Heygates Mill at Bugbrook. For more about this visit go to our Visits review section.
Latest news. 25/09/2017.
Duxford visit postponed until the spring.
BVTC Ploughing Match at New House Farm 17/09/2017.
Another great event. The rain just about held off for the day, although the previous 24 hours had seen heavy rain which made the soil stick to mouldboards and wellies alike! Despite the challenging nature of the soil conditions there was still plenty of good ploughing to be seen.
Our hosts for the match were Jackie Bagnall & Family, many thanks for allowing the BVTC to invade your farm for the day.
The food was excellent in quality and plentiful in quantity. Our thanks go to Jackie and all of her team for taking care of the catering. For any body who didn't partake in the roast pork rolls, you really did miss out. As for the cakes the variety I sampled, strictly for editorial purposes of course, was superb.
Our Judges for the match were Derek Hedges, Bob Wilbury and Geoff Thompson. Our thanks to them for bringing their knowledge and experience to the match.
A variety of tractors were to be seen in action including Allis Chalmers, County, Ford, Ferguson, Universal, International Harvester, Muir Hill, Fordson, Massey Ferguson and McCormick. Ploughs,mounted, trailed and semi mounted types, of all ages made by Ransomes, Ferguson, Dowdeswell, Rabe and David Brown were in action. Thanks to all of those ploughing for keeping going when the soil simply refused to flow. Regular stopping and scraping off being the order of the day.
The raffle and auction were both very well supported. Thank you to both everyone who generously donated prizes and the buyers and bidders.
The event raised the commendable sum of over £1885.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
All in all an excellent and very enjoyable day.
Heygates Mill visit.
Wednesday 27th September. Please arrive 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Heygates & Sons Ltd, Bugbrooke Mills, Northampton, NN7 3QH.
Website link added. 17/08/2017.
Just added a link to a website dedicated to David Brown Tractors. Contains a lot of information as you would expect from the title page "David Brown Tractors 1936-1988- The complete story." It is well written, highly detailed and, a treat for the DB enthusiasts.
Club night 02/05/2017.
"Steam power, Britain's gift to the world". Our guest speaker Michael Lee gave us a comprehensive look at all things steam powered and their influence on efficiency and economy in many industries. Starting with the men responsible for the birth and early developments of steam power, Savery, Newcomen, Trevithick and Watt. Michael's presentation covered fixed and portable steam engines, railway locomotives, traction engines, steam rollers, cars, trucks not forgetting river boats and ocean liners right through to nuclear power stations. A very informative talk providing plenty of reminders from a time when Britain was "The workshop of the world".
Steeple Barton road run, 01/05/2017.
A BIG thumbs up to Steve Phipps and Richard Long for independently organising this excellent event. 51 Tractors turned up. The route included plenty of off highway miles to get right into the Oxfordshire countryside. The Black Boy Pub at Milton was the venue for some mid run refreshment. The weather was mixed but no huge downpours. The catering was in the safe hands of Kim, Sharon and Carrie who all ensured nobody went hungry! This popular event raised £950.00 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. There were plenty of comments after the run about how well organised and how enjoyable it was. Well done to Steve, Richard and team, for another great day.
Merton road run photographs 12/04/2017.
A new gallery has been added with photographs of the Merton road run.
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
What an amazing day, brilliant sunshine all of the way, 60 tractors turned up for the event and over £1060.00 has been raised, so far, for Steve's nominated charity, Cancer research. Steve Holmes and his team once again organised this very successful road run. The route was over 20 miles through some of the very best English countryside. It passed through, in no particular order, Ambrosden, Merton, Wendlebury, Weston On The Green, Bletchingdon, Kirtlington, Enslow, Hampton Poyle, Islip, Cassington and Charlton On Otmoor. Due to the very high temperatures it was only proper that two refreshment stops were made. The first was at the Rock of Gibraltar and the second at the Crown in Charlton.
Steve thanks all of the helpers including Dawn, Gary, Jamie, Gilbert, Cath, Jean and Anne for their hard work and support. As always all attending were very well fed and watered. Steve wishes to thank all of the drivers and their supporters, along with everyone else who made it a very memorable event.
Courtesy of the sunshine Thomas Hogg has got a new look, not too sure that the "Boiled lobster" look will catch on though.....
We have now enjoyed three consecutive road runs with sunshine all the way, even if the 2nd January Finmere road run didn't get the mercury very far up the scale! Fingers crossed for the Barton road run on May 1st.
Last but by no means least, HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY STEVE!
Barton Road Run 01/05/2017.
More details have been added in the events section. 29/03/2017.
Duxford trip.
No date has been set, but mid May is looking possible. Let Jean know if you want to go.
Drivers day 23/04/2017.
The Risborough and District Historical Farm Machinery Club are holding a "Drivers day" Sunday 23rd April. Contact Jim Goss for details.
Club night 07/03/2017.
We were pleased to welcome Nick Ashman Territory Manager for John Deere, Grass & Turf. Nick presented the outline history of the company which was started by John Deere a jobbing blacksmith in 1837. The growth and evolution of the company and its products along with some mind boggling facts and figures all featured in Nicks presentation. We also learnt how very close John Deere were to establishing a factory in Scotland in the early 1950's. John Deere remains an independent company and has never been owned by any other company of any kind. John Deere also has its own bank. Nicks talk was illustrated with plenty of photographs of the products and activities of the company over the years.
Our thanks to Nick for giving us an informative and interesting presentation. Also thanks to Paul Dunning for his part in arranging this.
The BVTC Website.
The BVTC website was briefly out of action in February, all sorted out now. We've gained capacity to put more photographs on the site. Our previous capacity for photographs was 200, we can now have up to 750, so get snapping and send them in.
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
We are now less than one month away please let Jean know if you are going, numbers required for food. We are looking to get 60 tractors on this road run to mark Steve Holmes 60th Birthday. More details have been added to the events page "Road run" section
Club night 07/02/2017.
Due to unforeseen circumstances our guest speaker for the evening was unable to be with us. Our thanks go to Richard Newman for stepping in and providing us with a DVD looking back at the early days of farm mechanisation.
A couple of updates are now in the road runs section, and shows & rallies section of the events page.
Banbury & District Vintage Ploughing Society will be holding a Quiz Night Thursday 23rd March. www.bdvps.co.uk
Sunday lunch 22/01/2017.
This event saw members along with their families and friends fill the Fox & Hounds at Ardley to indulge in a Sunday lunch. What a lunch it was too! The food was excellent, and judging by the number of empty plates it was widely enjoyed! The roast beef was in a class of its own attracting many comments the like of "it melts in your mouth". The desserts were outstanding! Great venue, great food and great company to share it all. A very big thank you to our hosts Clive & Kellie who, assisted by their staff, made it a Sunday lunch to remember!
Merton road run 09/04/2017.
Go to events section for full details.
Finmere road run 02/01/2017.
Another great road run! The sun shone all day long, no disputing that is was still a very cold day though! 27 Tractors were on the run, the route took us through 20 miles of crisp and fresh countryside and not a turkey sandwich in sight! Our hosts for the day, Coulsden Old Vehicle Engineering Society, COVES, looked after us very well as usual! They prepared the bacon rolls for us prior to setting off, rumour has it that we got through 7kg of rashers!! On our return we enjoyed soup and rolls etc. A good number of folk enjoyed the "bracing" ride on the passenger trailer, no reports of frostbite! Our thanks go to Paul Chambers, Steve, Johnny and Derek for organising this event. We must also thank Denzil for "Traffic control", that really did make things a lot easier! Thanks for doing a top job Denzil! Thanks again to our superb hosts, Gordon, Pete, Mark and John, COVES. By the end of the day we'd raised a total of £362.00. A great fun day all round! If you have any photographs of the day you'd like to share, please email them to me, bvtc.ontheweb@gmail.com