Harry Ferguson: the Man, the Machines, the Memories.
A memoir of life at Abbotswood,
By Peter Warr
Peter Warr’s name is known to many of you as the man who was the curator of the Ferguson Family Museum on the Isle of Wight. Peter spent his early adult years working for Mr Ferguson at his country estate, Abbotswood, near Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. He continued to work for the family right up until his retirement.
Now in his nineties, Peter has written a personal memoir of his time spent at Abbotswood, from 1950, to the time of Mr Ferguson’s death in 1960.
This was the period during which Ferguson won his monumental court case with the Ford Motor Company, sold out to Massey-Harris and acquired what was Dixon-Rolt Developments Ltd, which he reformed it as Harry Ferguson Research Ltd, the company that developed the unique Ferguson four-wheel drive cars.
Part of Peter’s work at Abbotswood was to demonstrate these cars and their remarkable capabilities to the motor industry and press, whilst the other part involved testing tractors and implements and general work on the estate, some of which created the landscape features that are still in place to this day.
In his recollections, Peter gives a unique, personal insight into Harry Ferguson’s character in the last decade of his life. They show that at this time, with his physical and mental health in decline and the blunt refusal of the motor industry to take up his four-wheel drive car, Ferguson still retained his charisma, personal kindness and consideration to others that endeared him to all who knew him and worked with him. Includes a Foreword by Mr Ferguson’s grandson, Jamie Sheldon
The book can now be purchased through the Club Shop