An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood begins with a ‘Bygone Mechanical Farming’ event taking place on a farm near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. Several steam powered threshing machines are in operation as well as a steam powered plough working alongside its horse-drawn counterpart. Next, two vehicles are used to move a new gas-engine into a shed on a farm and in the final part of the film men extracting a miniature steam locomotive from a tunnel build in the grounds a house in the village of...

An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood begins with a ‘Bygone Mechanical Farming’ event taking place on a farm near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. Several steam powered threshing machines are in operation as well as a steam powered plough working alongside its horse-drawn counterpart. Next, two vehicles are used to move a new gas-engine into a shed on a farm and in the final part of the film men extracting a miniature steam locomotive from a tunnel build in the grounds a house in the village of Cullingworth near Bradford in West Yorkshire. Deborah Ellwood holds up a poster for the Stillington Traction Engine Association ‘Steam Working Bygone Mechanical Farming’ taking place on Burtree Farm, Birdford October 2nd and 3rd 1971. Three of the Ellwood children make their way towards a busy road, a sign next to it reads ‘Caution Crossing. Only at Police Point’. In a field a steam traction engine powers a threshing machine. A group of men stand around another traction engine that is powering a ‘Marshall’ threshing machine. Two men stand atop that machine feeding wheat or other cereal crop into it. A belt attached to the traction engine and thresher provides the power, the waste straw comes out the machine into another which turns it into bales. A man sits on another steam traction engine that powers another thresher. Four men work atop a large bale using pitchforks to shovel the cereal crop into the thresher. Small particles of hay are blown out of the side of the thresher, a small boy stands nearby watching. Another workman uses a pitchfork to move the straw into a steam powered baling machine. A small crowd gathers around another steam powered milling machine. In another field two different types of horse-drawn ploughs while in another part of the field steam is used to power a plough which moves up and down. A Massey-Harris threshing machine with cereal being forked into the machine with waste straw coming out the rear being lifted by pitchfork onto a large bales or stack. On the other side of the thresher three men watch as sacks are filled with grain. A winding machine lifts a full heavy sack to shoulder higher where it is carried away. A ‘Recovery Service’ lorry is parked in a farmyard changes to John and Peter Ellwood and a young man looking over a small steam engine sitting on the ground. The recovery lorry along with a small yellow Land Rover are used to move the engine on a winch into a shed next to the Burrell General Purpose traction engine. A large house in winter, the ground covered with snow. John Ellwood stands beside a tunnel, part of a miniature railway built in front of the large house. He pulls a wagon from the tunnel and drags it along the track. Two men in overalls pull a miniature steam locomotive from inside the tunnel dragging and then pushing it along the track before it is pushed on a sled. Inside a shed Deborah and then John Ellwood looks over a miniature locomotive now standing on a table or worktop.