What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Tony Griffiths]

Some years ago the farmer opposite bought one of the new, enormous tractors and because it was just a "farm vehicle" - and so 'invisible' to all but in the know - used it to tow trailers full of minerals from one of his mines along routes from which such traffic was banned. As he is now long deceased it would not be telling tales out of school also to mention that he managed (goodness knows how) to connect to the gas main and have 10 years of free heating. This was not discovered until the new property owners tried to find the gas meter. Despite his other and many illegal activities he was known locally as the 'loveable rogue' and seemed to get away with almost anything.

[Duncan Grimmond]

A few years ago I heard and felt a loud bang at the front of our house. I went out to see what had happened and in the twilight I could see nothing. A couple of days later I saw a lump of red sandstone lying on the pavement and discovered it had been knocked off our windowsill by a piece of agrindustrial equipment. The street was built just after the plague and designed for perhaps two oxcarts to pass. I regularly see huge herringbone tyre tracks within inches of the front doors on our side of the street as the size of farm machinery has grown out of proportion to the available road dimensions. The speed at which the agricultural traffic tears through the village is terrifying.

[David Stepney]

A few days ago, Leon and I followed a 20 reg Valtra tractor of enormous size at 50 mph as we were coming back from feeding the horse!

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

My Father in law (dead over twenty years now) always said about farmers.

“They think they own the place”…..” Trouble is they generally do”.  

Don’t see too many tractors round here (mid Wales), the annoyance of choice is a 4x4 and an overladen sheep trailer.

Cheers

Howard

[Duncan Grimmond]

Don't get me started on horses! The Yorkshire Riding Centre is 1/4 mile away and the ENORMOUS horse box/living vans fit for a Holywood star's entourage that fight their way up the very narrow lane have me spitting tacks! The owners of 4*4 with horse trailers will stop for a chicken or a dog or a cat but they drive at cyclists with lights. When you point out to them that they expect cars to give way (and I always do) to them on their horses...

[Frank Stoll]

Officially it's winter... but yesterday the weather turned from cold and rainy, to dry, to unbelievably warm and... I took the car for a ride. Unfortunately - I am very consistent when it comes to treating my vehicle with care - some cities put loads of salt on the road, while others did not. So I figured out where driving was salt-free and got to know many streets and paths that I had never used before. Lovely tour through Southern Germany where already some trees start to blossom...

[Graham Barker]

Lovely photo. Well composed. Nice paintwork on the car.

[John Mason]

Just a little info on large tractors. The really big ones are technically not tractors but Land Locomotives and you have to be 21 or over to drive them. This said most folk would not understand what you were talking about if you used the term Land Locomotive. A tractor is much smaller in size and weight (I cannot recall the exact weights at the moment.) but they can be driven by a 16 year old for agricultural purposes.

John Mason.

[Hugh Barnes]

Yes, things have moved on aways from the little Grey Fergie...

[Chris Garner]

My daughter Hazel, at the age of sixteen in 1992, passed her tractor test and the following day was grain carting with a JCB Fastrac, a twenty mile journey through the centre of Melton Mowbray town. She was however experienced, having spent many hours ploughing and sub-soiling the fields in the Vale of Belvoir.