2017 is the anniversary of the Fordson tractor but very few events are being organised to celebrate it. CNH are not going to do anything and are not offering assistance to clubs as far as I have heard.
I am booked for the celebrations in Deniliquin in Australia and have been for a year at least. Fordson Tractor Club of Australia are having a stand at the Deniliquin Collectors Club Rally with sponsorship from New Holland Agriculture not from Ford Australia as I originally posted. NHA are providing flags and promotional material and the FCA supplying the marquee and everything else. The Special Guests are providing their own air fare but have their accomodation for the trip already booked.
Interesting reading the history of Ford as I am doing at the moment for the book on J. J. Wright and Sons Ltd that I am working on. Ford had a tractor up and running in 1916 and he wanted to build it in Ireland because he was half Irish. When it became clear that the UK was in trouble with food production as the submarine war was taking its tole on imports, (we were importing 72% of our food, sound familiar)? The British Government approached a company in London who were importing American tractors and through their contacts, approached Ford. Henry was very generous and said he would provide drawings and tooling to build the tractor free of charge and set up a factory in Ireland on the understanding that the British Government bought the tractors and they were not sold to farmers. Hence the name MOM, Ministry of Munitions, the Ministry bought and owned the first Fordsons.
This was agreed and 5000 tractors were ordered but it did not work out as production could not be set up quickly so some parts were bought locally, some parts came from Fords factory in the States and the tractors were assembled in the States, in Cork and in Manchester. Although some appeared on farms and at demonstrations in 1917 it was 1918 before the factory in Cork really got into production.
J. J. Wright and Sons Ltd became a Ford dealer in 1912, set up an agricultural department selling Mogul and Overtime tractors before selling Fordson tractors from 1919 when they became available to buy. They also did agricultural contracting with their own fleet of tractors from around 1917 to 1920.
