A Co. Offaly farmer, through his restoration of vintage tractors, will be speaking on the how he is preserving the history of the machinery as part of Heritage Week 2023.
Joe Deverell, of Geashill, in his talk on ‘Preserving Living Agricultural Heritage,’ will discuss his restoration of a vintage 1962 Nuffield 460 tractor.
Deverell said: “I always had an interest in vintage stuff, particularly in tractors.”
Farming for 50 years, Deverell has tillage crops and breeds Hereford cattle for beef.
He said: “I always had an interest in Nuffield tractors. I learned how to drive on a Nuffield years ago, on what was known as a Nuffield P4, with a Universal Perkins engine in it.”
Restoring tractors
In January 2020,Deverell saw a Nuffield 460 advertised online, and as it was a busy period on his own farm, when he arrived to see the tractor, he spent “about five minutes” looking at it.
“I ended up buying it, got it home here, and started into it. Lucky enough it was just before the lockdown. So it was a gift,” he told Agriland.
Deverell then began the process of restoring the tractor, from putting lights in it, to tracking down the original registration of the Nuffield 460.
The process of restoration was not always smooth, as was demonstrated when Deverell brought the Nuffield 460 for a drive in the summer of 2021.
“I had it up and running and going good, I was out on a little bit of a run with it on a summer evening, and I stopped at a field, but when I got back up on it and when I put my foot on the clutch, it went bang,” he explained.
“So something went in the clutch I knew that. I had get my son to tow me back, and I had to put it into a shed and leave it there until the wintertime because I got a hip replacement just a couple of weeks later.
“The bang was a clutch fork broke on it, so I had to strip it down and take the clutch out and replace the fork.
“When I had the clutch out, I decided to put a new one in it, and then I had to do the hydraulics and do various jobs on it.”
Deverell said: “The 460 is more or less fully restored, not that you’d ever have a vintage thing fully restored.”
Last year, Deverell bought a Nuffield Universal that had a six-cylinder Perkins engine.
This tractor is also nearly completely restored, as Deverell intends to respray it in the near future.
Preserving history
After bringing his vintage Nuffield 460 tractor into the modern day, Deverell aims to incorporate its use into some jobs on the farm.
“I’ve done a couple of small jobs with her. I had a pressure washer on her, and I ran a grain roller with her.
This harvesting season, Deverell may put an old baler, a Massey Ferguson 20-8 on the tractor.
He said: “I’ll see how the rest of the harvest goes, I might bale a few small bales with it.
“It’s important to preserve those things, as back in the day, they were the big tractor.
“They had a huge influence on the way agriculture improved, it made life a little bit easier with regards to getting work done.
“It was part of the process of making farming easier and a lot of people don’t realise what had to be done back then.”
For his talk during Heritage Week 2023, Deverell will be discussing the history of the Nuffield brand, and will give an account of his restoration of the vintage tractors and will show pictures of the many stages of his work.
Those attending the talk at Tullamore library at 6:30p.m today (Thursday, August 17) will be able to get a hands-on experience of the vintage tractor.
Deverell said: “I’ll have the tractor with me out in the car park. People can come out and have a look and I’ll explain the tractor to them.”
One of the key themes of this year’s National Heritage Week, is ‘living heritage’ which refers to the practices, knowledge and skills that have been passed from one generation to the next, and are still in use today.
Deverell said: “I was at the Tullamore Show with the two tractors last Sunday, and the vintage section gets huge interest from young and old.
“There was a couple of young lads, very knowledgeable on doing up engines, so it’s great to see.”