Poet and photographer salute trusty machines
They have helped shape our country and feed our nation for generations.
The tractor, the enginepowered workhorse of Scottish f a r m e r s, has ploughed and harvested, pulled and dragged, for decades.
Now, as many lie rusting in peace after years of service, landscape photographer Allan Wright has toured the country to capture their retirement in a new book, Vintage Tractors.
He said: “When I was doing my normal photography I kept seeing these tractors in the landscape. I realised the vintage ones were dying out in a graceful way. I developed a mild obsession.
“When I started shari n g the pictures on social media, I got an amazing interest that started me thinking of the potential for a book.”
Allan’s first tractor picture was taken back in 1983 and he’s photographed scores since, right across the country.
Some are derelict, relics slowly rusting away, others are very much integral to communities as they work the fields in smallscale, often remote, farms.
The machines featured are mostly models from the 1950s and 1960s.
And, although they have become a private passion, Allan, f rom Castle Douglas, insists he is not an expert by any means.
“I’m definitely not a tractor buff,” said Allan. “I know that Massey Fergusons are red or grey, David Browns are white and Fordsons are blue, but that’s about it really.”
The book has a specially penned poem by w r i t e r G e o r g e Gu n n and features an introduction by former farmer and self- confessed tractor aficionado Russell Mcnab.
Russell recalls buying his first tractor, a secondhand Massey Ferguson 3 Cylinder, and then moving on to more and more.
He sold them but, after retiring from farming, he started collecting vintage models and now has about 40. He is an active member of the thriving Ayrshire Vintage Tractor & Machinery Club and his fascination continues unabated.
“There has never been a time in my life when I was not involved with tractors and I feel a strange bond with them,” admitted Russell.
It’s a devotion that Allan has come to increasingly appreciate over the past 35 years.
And he says he can see an ongoing love for them in the farmers still using them.
“I think they are a living embodiment of a sustainable way of living and they have been dying out as modern machines are so much bigger,” said Allan.
“Sometimes farmers aren’t always that friendly to wandering photographers, but when I’ve told them what I’m doing, I’ve had some lovely encounters.”