The Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, with organisers predicting it to attract the most diverse range of machines in its history.
The 20th anniversary event of the Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show will take place from November 4-5, 2023, at Newark Showground.
This year’s event will include special anniversary classes and a display reviving some of the first-ever exhibits of the show.
Local farm contractor and vintage tractor collector Paul Ducksbury has been involved in the show since its inception.
“Little did we know what a success the show would become when we were planning the first one in 2003; it’s gone from strength to strength,” he said.
“The George Stephenson Hall was added to the facilities in 2006; then tractors from other shows were nominated in a ‘People’s Choice’ class, creating a really diverse range of exhibits.
“Now, two decades later, the event is seen as the pinnacle of the year – the highlight at the end of the season.”
Event history
Ducksbury said one of the most memorable classes in the event’s history was ‘100 years of Fordson’ in 2017, to which he took 34 tractors.
“The first Fordson was built in the US in 1917, and manufacture this side of the Atlantic started just two years later in 1919 in Ireland, before moving to Dagenham in 1923,” he said.
“Having the whole range on display in 2017 was quite a sight.”
Another favourite exhibit of his was a unique adaption of a Minneapolis-Moline tractor which he saw on display in 2004.
“It wasn’t the original tractor, but two tractors joined together by the owner John Hayward of Bilsthorpe near Newark, to give it four-wheel drive and 100hp,” he said.
“The Minneapolis-Molines were only manufactured for a short time in the UK between 1946 and 1949, so it was an unforgettable sight.”
Regular competitors
Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show organisers said the event attracts regular competitors from far afield.
The Reid family, who run a hydraulic engineering business in Arbroath (350 miles from the site), have made the journey to Newark every year since the show started.
In 2003, Neil Reid took a 1970 David Brown 880 Selectamatic and won ‘Best David Brown’ and the ‘Concours 1965-78 Classic’.
The tractor has returned many times over the years, winning the ‘Heritage Machinery Shield’ in 2007 and ‘Best David Brown’ again in 2011 – and it’s making a return this year to feature in the 20th anniversary display.
Another vehicle which is returning to the showground after its first appearance at the very first show is an International Farmall H, owned by Dan Bartle.
“This tractor was bought by Joseph Camm Farms, Retford in 1948 and used as their main tractor for specialist row crop work in the springtime,” Bartle said.
“After many years of service, the tractor was loaned out to the local agricultural museum and put on show to the public.
“After a few years, the museum unfortunately closed, leaving the tractor abandoned. The original owners contacted me and my uncle in 1998 to rescue the tractor, along with a Fordson N tractor which the farm owned too.
“Both tractors were recovered and restoration began. My uncle restored the International Farmall, replacing many parts as well as importing the correct replacement tyres from the USA.
“He took this tractor to a lot of local rallies including the first Newark tractor show in 2003. I inherited this tractor back in 2022 and now have both tractors.”
