Tractors have been a life-long interest of mine. Many years ago, I read the biography of Harry Ferguson by Colin Fraser and this started my fascination with all things Ferguson, particularly the history of his many inventions and developments. For what is he best remembered? His involvement in the early motor industry? His interest in motor racing and the Ards TT? The fact that he was the first person in Ireland to design, build and fly his own aeroplane? The production of a commercial plough, without wheels, designed to be a unit with the tractor? The three-point linkage and that linkage to be an integral part of the tractor? A motor car with his own four-wheel drive transmission and ABS braking? The list goes on and much of this is well documented. However, I discovered that the history of plough development and the three-point linkage was fragmentary. This set me searching. The recent republication, on the Club’s web site, of some of our original articles has thrown up some interesting material, although having spent some time looking into this subject, I feel some of the information is not completely accurate.
Harry’s interest in mechanised farming dates from 1914 when he became the agent for Overtime tractors – using demonstration as a sales technique – and having become expert tractor ploughmen, in 1917 he and Willie Sands were commissioned to perform ploughing demonstrations
throughout Ireland. This highlighted some of the problems with the equipment and led them to develop the Belfast Plough. Harry wanted a small light tractor for this and the prototype Fordson, which was on trial in England at that time seemed ideal, so he designed his plough specifically for it. Unfortunately, this tractor did not become available to him until 1918 and so the original demonstrations were done using the Eros (Model T conversion). Harry and his team continued to improve the design with the Duplex linkage, which was manufactured and sold in America. Power assistance and ultimately the three-point linkage led on to him developing his own Black Tractor.
In this country I do not think there is a collection where one can follow this development through. The most complete is the Ferguson Family Museum, which has the only Belfast Plough I know of in captivity. Unfortunately, they did not have a Duplex plough, when I visited, but what they do have are the various developments of the hydraulics and the three-point linkages with the final Fordson ‘add-on’ version fitted to a Fordson Model F. Now to get back to the subject of this article, my friend, Mike Thorne of the Coldridge Collection has been generously offered, on loan, a working model of the original Belfast Plough. This was constructed in the 1980’s under the eye of well-known Ferguson enthusiast Bill Martin, at that time, lecturer at Greenmount Agricultural and Horticultural College, Antrim who had much to do with the Ferguson section of the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra. The great advantage of this model is that it is a reasonable size and Mike would be happy to demonstrate its function.
For the Ferguson historian, both of these collections are a must. Neither is open to the general public but both welcome interested individuals or parties by appointment. The Family Museum on the Isle of Wight covers the whole history of Harry Ferguson’s life and work, from early motorcycles to four-wheel drive cars, Mike’s collection, which is very extensive, covers tractors and machinery as well as other transport related memorabilia. Perhaps the recent articles in the Journal may have whetted your appetite? Mike Thorne would love to hear from anyone with a Duplex plough which they would like displayed, as a loan to the Coldridge Collection and I would appreciate any further information on the early development of the plough and threepoint linkage.
Photographs by Dr Mike Oakins e-mail: mike.oakins@gmail.com)
Mike Oakins in collaboration with Mike Thorne,
First published in Ferguson Club Journal No.107 Winter 2023/24
