Update

Hi , I have a further update to this one. That is that I have found and been given a rear axle complete with a Howard 24" wheel off a 2 furrow mouldboard plough - this axle, with brackets, is identical to the one on my plough and the Howard wheel confirms without doubt the plough is a Howard.

Thus I now have one 24" Howard rear wheel and am now short of a match to that plus an 18" front wheel.

My only other point that needs confirmation is the dates my plough was made. It is very similar to early 1880s ploughs made in South Australia - in particular the Whitaker and Dixon ploughs. Some of those however are made from steel whereas mine is made from wrought iron.

All the best for the festive season

Regards

I have recived another email on our howards of bedford matter.

I will bring you copys of the emails as I get them and any other information I get will be put up also

Good news.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have not posted sooner but I was busy,

I received these photos of howards of Bedford ploughs from a anonymous person who has emailed me with details,

It would seem that Howards in fact took over ransoms the more well known farm equipment.

Here is the email that I received  on the matter

Hi , I thought I would let you know of my findings to date.

Pic 7579 shows a Howard brochure depicting my plough as the "Stump Jumper" The wheels are not original and the front one is missing. Thru research I have actually come across a wheel that suits my plough. It is currently on a Shearer plough that has been restored by a local museum - see pic 7578

It is a Howard wheel having Howard Bedford cast into the hub. If I can't get original back wheels I will make up the rims and spokes and using the Howard hub as a pattern, and get new hubs cast in aluminium with a steel axle sleeve.

The other pics show that the Howard colours are seen as a royal blue frame with pinky-red wheels

(you may have sent one of them - I lost track of them) I have been lent a copy of the Ransomes history by Brian Bell and it seems most of their machines continued the same livery after the take over from Howards. I reckon we can comfortably settle on those colours.

As an aside, if you ever come across any detail concerning the date my plough was first made (or any information) - eg. brochure dates etc, would you pl let me know. 

FYI

Regards

and now I want toi share the photos I received with the email

there is a suspision amongst me and my father (the owner of the plough that started this blog) that the howards ploughs might be a red and a darker blue so the ransoms were a sky blue but the howards a navy blue.

The Howards of Bedford EP plough...

Hi Everyone

My father and I went to the Netley Marsh steam rally about a year ago now and we bought a

Howard's of Bedford EP Plough, this is where our problems started.

When we got it home we put it on the drive and decided to research the plough. To be honest we wanted to know the ORIGINAL colours of the plough, we came across the idea that the colour of the factory/foundry gates would be the same as the plough left the factory in, but was this actually the case? Can anyone help us?

we now know that the factory has been demolished, I only hope that it was done by someone like            Fred Dibnah, although I bet that it was done by the bulldozers and dynamite men, shame really.

Does anyone have any ideas of the twilight years of the factory? If so can YOU help us please?

I have some pictures here one is a present day picture of the gates and a overhead sort of sketch of what it would of looked like before it was flattened.

Now, we know that these ploughs were sold and exported all over the world, so can anyone out there could be helpful.  We are working ourselves to find any information, we are interested in anything related to the Howard's of Bedford company.

we think that the farm machinery was made at the Britannia Iron works, although there could have been another foundry.

thanks for reading

contact Cameron or Christopher and use the message subject "Howard's of Beds plough blog"

C&C Bater