Little bit of history

[Brian]

These are name plates used on the front of J.J.Wright and Sons tractors at shows or on demonstrations. They date from the 1930/40's, the J.J.Wright one has a notch on the top where the staring handle of a E27N would have been.

Wright and Walker were the Case side of the business as Ford would not allow you to trade with the same name for a different tractor company. Walkers were a farming family from Yaxham on the outskirts of Dereham. We have some pictures of Case tractors and ploughs working at a demonstration. One has Roadless half tracks, another is pulling a Case combine. We can identify the exact field that the pictures were taken.

The pictures to follow are owned by Charles Atkin of Atkin Farm Machinery, one of my colleagues from "back in the day". They are being copied at the moment.

[Pascal]

Very interesting, Brian!
I am looking forward to the pictures.

[ford5000y]

Yes, pictures please! I like old pictures of old tractors, even my philosophy is FORDSON ABOVE ALL OLD TRACTORS!

[Brian]

The history continues:



Wrights were agents for Case tractors in the 1930's as well as Fords. Because Ford would not allow dealers to hold two main dealerships for different manufactures, the board got around it by setting up another company with a local farmer, Mr. Walker of Yaxham near East Dereham. The company was named Wright and Walker Ltd and was based at London Road, Dereham in the same buildings.

These pictures were taken at a Case demonstration event and the fields can be pin pointed even today.

Note the Case-Roadless crawler. I have come across a couple of these over the years but mainly as Lifeboat Tractors.



An "informed source" tells me that this is Dick Walker driving this tractor.



The Case combine in this picture could have still been on a local farm up to about 10 years ago.



Wrights workshop staff around 1946-47. The man in front of the bench I knew and worked with in later years, Gerald Deeker, He was workshop manager from around 1939 until the 1950's and was awarded an MBE for his work during that period.



Working in the stores 1946/1947. The man on the right is Charles Thompson, one of the best storeman on Fordson tractors I knew. He could quote part numbers and year of parts off the top of his head without looking in the book.



The workshop. 1946/47.



The same area in the 1990's after closure.



Repairing and testing radiators.



Refacing valve seats.



Gearbox repairs on a Model "N".



Parts going into the Caustic Soda hot washer. This was still in constant use in my day. Fred and I used to try and have one Major/Power Major/ Super Major engine each being stripped out, one engine in parts in the washer, one engine being painted, one engine being refitted and another collected on the return trip to keep the sequence going.



On farm engine change. In our day we did not have the crane but just backed our vans over the engine and undid the last two bolts dropping the engine straight into the back.

Many thanks to Charles Atkin of Atkin Farm Machinary, East Dereham and Anthony Clare for providing these pictures.

[ford5000y]

Great pictures! For me, the workshop looks livelier During the time that it has tractors and servicemen working than the time it was closed.

[Dandy Dave]

Yes. Very enjoyable bit of history. Thanks for sharing. Dandy Dave!

[ford5000y]

Have you got any more pics, this time on the "Ford side of the business"? If there were, please post it!

[Pascal]

Great pictures, Brian!!
Thank you very much for sharing.

If you have any from the 1000-series, I would love to see them!!

[Jos Cuypers]

awsome pictures....

[Brian]

More pictures from the growing J.J.Wright archive that I seem to be collecting.



The High Street branch breakdown truck, this was a petrol ET6 which, in later years, had to be hand started as the battery used to loose its charge. Similar engine to the petrol Major.





The Agricultural Division used two of the same vans but ours were diesel versions and were still in use in the late 1960's. My friend, Charles Atkin took me for a ride the other day to see the remains of one of the two vans, just the rear body, which had been used as a shepherds hut. I had hoped to get a picture but there was only a few flat panels with no paint on them. We did find a couple of new plough points for my plough after sifting through the remains.



Fordson Model "N" on war duty. Tractor supplied and serviced by J.J.Wright and Sons Ltd.



Job repair notification.



From the local paper. Working for Wrights was a job for life!

[Bensdexta]

What became of JJ Wrights?

[Emiel]

Hello Brian,

As usual very nice photos. I really like the ET6 Breakdown truck.

Rgds

Emiel

[Brian]

J.J.Wright and Sons Ltd became Wright Agricultural in the 1970's when the company was starting to be broken up due to problems within the Wright family. Part of the board went their own way taking the Cambridgeshire Motors part of the business and running it as a separate enterprise for just cars. It is still operating today but is cars only.The Cambridgeshire Motors Tractor side at Wisbech was sold to Peterborough Motors Ltd and I eventually managed the old depot for them. Henrietta is a Cambridgeshire Motors supplied tractor. The depot is now a double glazing factory.

Wright Agricultural was sold to Dalgety Agriculture who owned Plowrights in Swaffham, Wiggs of Barnby and Braceys of Bennington, all International dealerships. All these depots with the exception of Braceys became Ford dealers and in the first year I spent time at Swaffham, sorting out problems and training up the workshop staff to Ford tractors.

Not a very happy time as the Plowrights chaps were unhappy about losing the IH agency and becoming a Ford dealer much as I would have been if it had been the other way round. We, Wrights staff, also had a substantial wage reduction which also did not go down well. The other thing that did not go down well with me was the fact that Braceys retained the IH dealer and, in later years, I got taken out on a number of deals by Wrights salesmen when we were both quoting the same price for a Ford tractor to a customer and to close the deal the Wrights salesman would offer an IH tractor at a cheaper price which we could not compete with. So not only did Dalgety destroy the company but also the Ford customer base.

Dalgety asset stripped the business and eventually sold Wrights to a management buyout and the Plowrights site in Swaffham became a cold and drafty shopping mall and housing estate. The management buyout was under-capitalised and failed after a few years.

The car side became Gilbert Rice Ltd for a few years and eventually was sold to Busseys of Norwich, the company was moved to a new, smaller site and the lorry workshop, low bake paint shop and car workshops and sale room were all demolished for another shopping m all. Busseys is still operating in Dereham today but with no workshop or stores just a new and used car sales area.

[oehrick]

Hi Brian

Now I understand how you became such a ford / fordson expert

I don't know when but Plowrights historical archive material (which included Victorian steam engine makers catalogues and a whole host more) ended up at the Museum of Rural Life at Reading, a lot of it is scanned and accesible on-line, I've not looked for anything 'late date' or not steam related but if this was donated after the Wright take-over there might be Wright material there to (although not on-line)

The MERL people are great to deal with (in the limited time they have) and there has been a strong Norfolk interest in one Mr Roy Brigden, ex Bridewell, who is now overall MERL curator.

Meanwhile I'm another who has thoroughly enjoyed your pictures and eagerly await more being posted in due course - thanks

Rick

[oehrick]

Talk about needing the unsend button !

Following the last post I had a quick scoot over to MERL to see if I could find Wrights amongst their acquisitions, I couldn't, but clicked on a link by accident and got into a blog and discovered that Roy Brigden retired in 2010!!, I shall now have to depend on his folks goodwill for favours

[BearCreek Majors]

That’s some interesting stuff Brian, A real shame to have to see the company you and many others were willing to make a career of, slowly dissolve away.
Years Ago I worked for OMC, best known for their Johnson and Evenrude outboards, at one time a huge company with plants all over the US and Canada. After a few bad decisions by management and a few years of a slow economy, they were gone in the blink of an eye.
Its good fun to reminisce about the “good old days”, remembering friends and accomplishments made, and to be proud of who we are and what we have done, and to realize that we are still making history every day of our lives.

You have a lot to be proud of, and I don’t think you’re quite done yet.

Pat