The ‘unicorn’ tractor – famous but unseen

The ‘unicorn’ tractor – famous but unseen 

Every now and again you come across something so rare that it’s legendary – and the oldest tractor at this year’s Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show certainly falls into that category. Built by Lancashire farmer and engineer Wilfred Sharp in 1904, the prototype Sharp tractor originally featured a two-cylinder Daimler engine, with almost everything else designed and built in Wilfred’s workshop in York. The gear wheels and road wheels were cast at a local foundry. 

Tractor enthusiast Kevin Watson had known about the tractor since he was a child, but little did he expect to end up owning it. “It’s one of those unicorn tractors, people have heard about it but never seen it.” 

Its history is well-documented: Wilfred used the tractor on his farm to carry out mowing, haulage, ploughing, cultivating and to drive the pulley-powered thresher and chopper. “It created quite a sensation, and crowds of people, attracted no doubt by the unusual noise, came around, and were sometimes a bit of a nuisance,” he wrote in 1956 for Power Farmer magazine. “The hostility of the farmers was something I had not expected. They were horse men, horse breeders, and they looked upon motor cars as a menace to their business. We were out of tune with the times. The horse was King.” 

Wilfred subsequently built a second tractor, and then sold production rights to a new company in Yorkshire, which only went on to build two more. In 1955 he sold the prototype to the famous Power Farmer collection, which toured the UK. It then ended up in the hands of Norman Vince before moving to a private collection in Ripon. Kevin went to look round the private collection, unaware that the Sharp tractor was part of it. “The owner said that if I knew what it was I could have it – I said it was a Sharp tractor, and he said he was only joking!” 

It took 10 years to persuade the owner to sell the tractor, and for Kevin to save up to buy it. “I just love the history of it,” he says. “To me, it’s the rarest tractor in the world. It’s the prototype, and there weren’t many built. I know one went to New Zealand but I can’t find any trace of it.” 

A collector of pre-1950 tractors, tractor mechanic Kevin undertook the restoration himself, replacing the wooden deck and toolbox, and getting the engine running again; although originally built with a Daimler engine, by 1912 that had been replaced with a Humber twin cam as the Daimler had been damaged by frost. 

Kevin also bought the implements to go with it, including a Howard mower, Howard seven-tine cultivator and Cockshutt kangaroo plough. “The mower is good, the cultivator is usable, but the plough is very rough.” This year, he even had it out demonstrating with the cultivator. “They’re tractors; to me they have to work.” 

The tractor originally had a wooden water tank on the back, to enable variable ballast weights, but that no longer exists. “I hope to get the mower back on and running properly and get the tractor out and about and known again,” says Kevin. “It’s weird to drive, as you’re sitting low like in a sports car and the engine really roars. But you have to remember that anyone who sat on it had only ever been on a horse before – it had to be simple.” 

• Save the date – next year’s event will be on the 8th and 9th November 2025