Vintage tractor community to honour one of their own at November show

A renowned vintage tractor enthusiast is to be remembered at Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show this November.

A shield for the best unrestored vintage machine will be presented in memory of Paul Ducksbury, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, who spent his life fixing and restoring machines, while inspiring others to do the same.  

To the agricultural contracting world, Paul Ducksbury was a hard-working, plain-speaking man who ran the family business for more than 50 years.  

His business tackled silage, combining, cultivations, drilling, root crop production and a dozen other jobs besides, from the yard at Askham.

Paul passed away in March this year after a long and brave battle with cancer. More than 400 people attended his funeral – many from the vintage tractor world from as far away as Scotland and Cornwall.

A collector of an extraordinary range, a natural mechanic with an almost mystical touch, and an individual known for deriving as much pleasure from seeing others enjoy machines as from owning them himself.

Paul’s wife, Eileen, said: "One of the main things about Paul was that he never said no to a job. Whatever anybody asked him to do, whether he had time, energy or resources, the answer was always yes.”

It was a quality that defined both the contracting business and his approach to the vintage world. If an enthusiast needed a tractor for a road run, Paul would lend one. If a child at a show wanted to climb up and sit behind the wheel, they were welcome.

In the blood from the start

The Ducksbury connection to tractors goes back generations. Paul's father was a farmer and a regular at farm sales, and the family yard at Tuxford was full of purchases.

Eileen, who grew up around contracting herself, said some got used, others were sold, while the remainder were taken to bits.

Paul was philosophical about it, she says. "As he always said, the fact that you got rid of some made the ones today more valuable."

The first tractor Paul bought when he struck out on his own in October 1972 was a Muirhill, which is still in the collection today.

The business grew quickly, employing around 10 people at its peak and working far afield, with Claas machinery handling the big forage and harvesting work, and Case and JCB Fastrac tractors favoured for their simplicity and ease of maintenance.

They also inherited a Marshall Steamroller when Paul's father died. It still has an annual boiler test and gets out when the occasion demands.

Over 220 machines

The vintage collection grew to well over 220 tractors and vehicles. Long-time friend and fellow enthusiast, Paul Hird, has spent the past three years helping Paul catalogue and prepare the collection.

"I put a register together of everything that exists up here," he says, "and we've never only got one of anything."

Two great passions ran through the collection – Fordsons, and anything made by Marshalls of Gainsborough.

"He was really, really into his Marshalls," says Hird. "But the one thing that runs as a theme is the Ford and Fordsons. There's just so many of them." His logic as a buyer was its own form of connoisseurship.

"He could buy two E27Ns purely because one had something slightly different to the other," says Hird. "Even if it was just a modification made during its working life, that was reason enough."

Crucially, Paul loved them in their original condition.

"If you looked at it, you saw its story," says Eileen. "If you shot blasted and painted it, you take that away.”

Getting them running was the other half of his pleasure. "He could pull something out of the hedge bottom and in a few minutes, he'd have it going," she says.

Hird added: "He'd run his hands along the bonnets and say, 'Ah, it'll be all right, be running by tea time.'

"His friends say all he had to do was wave his hands over it and it would go."

A fixture at Newark

Paul's connection to the Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show was a long one.

The show was a fixture. A place to exhibit, to compete, and above all to talk. "Paul could talk for England," says Eileen. "He knew everybody. He couldn't remember the names, but everybody knew him. You couldn't walk more than 10 paces before he found somebody to stop and chat with."

Paul was a founder member of the National Vintage Tractor and Engine Club in 1971. He belonged to virtually every vintage tractor club going and would work his way through every brand tent across the showground. In 2016 he brought 35 Fordsons to a show themed around the anniversary and was awarded the prize for best collection. He later won best Marshall in show. Two years ago, the show committee presented him with an award for services to agriculture.

"He was absolutely thrilled with it," says Eileen.

His daughter, Helena, adds that a recurring theme in the sympathy cards received since his death has been his generosity of time and enthusiasm, particularly taking the time to encourage the next generation. "He was always very invested in other people's interests in vintage," she says. "He always had time to talk about what they wanted to talk about.”

The tractor with the tree

One machine stands out among all the rest as a symbol of everything Paul stood for. It is a Massey Harris 744 D, which was his father's tractor, originally from the yard at Anston, which broke down on its last journey to Tuxford decades ago and was simply left where it stopped. Over the years, a tree grew through it.

This spring, Hird chainsawed the tree top and bottom, freed the tractor, and brought it back to the yard, arriving the week before Paul died. "He actually saw it out the window on the back of the lorry when it came back in," said Hird. "He wanted it back, and we got it back."

Completely unrestored, none of its wheels turning, it must be loaded and unloaded by forklift wherever it goes. It has been to Tractor Fest at Newby Hall, to the Lincoln Show, and to Carrington. This November, it will come to Newark.  

Road runs were another great love. Paul took part in many across the years, and always lent tractors freely to friends who didn't have a machine of their own. The family started two runs of their own – one in July 2005, established in memory of his brother Michael, which raises money for Weston Park Cancer Charity and has now donated over £80,000; and the Paul and Eileen "Blow the Cobwebs Off" run, held between Christmas and New Year, which the family plan to keep going.

Remembering Paul this November

The Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show takes place on 7-8 November at Newark Showground, and this year's event carries a special dedication.

A Best Unrestored Vintage class has been established in Paul's memory, and the Ducksbury family will present a shield to the winner.

Tickets and information are available at www.newarkvintagetractorshow.com or call 01636 705796.