The Doe Tractor Story (eBook)

Stuart Gibbard (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015 | 1. Auflage
120 Seiten
Old Pond Books (Verlag)
978-1-912158-09-6 (ISBN)

Infos

The Doe Triple D became a legend in its own lifetime. It was one of the most unorthodox tractors ever built and had two engines, four wheel drive and could articulate through nearly 90 degrees. A very successful machine in its own time, it has remained a firm favourite among tractor enthusiasts everywhere. This illustrated account tells the full story of this remarkable tractor and the company that built it. The rise of Essex company Ernest Doe & Sons from a village blacksmith's shop to the largest machinery retail organization in East Anglia is traced in detail with full coverage given to the machines it made.

Stuart Gibbard, editor of Old Tractor Magazine has written a series of highly acclaimed books and DVDs published by Old Pond Publishing.

Textauszug

Ernest Doe & Sons Ltd is a large agricultural and construction machinery dealership based at Ulting, near Maldon in Essex. The company is a highly successful retail organisation operating across most of East Anglia and south-east England. It is a proud family firm, steeped in tradition with its roots dating back to the nineteenth century.

The company’s founder, Ernest Doe, was born in 1876, the second son of Charles Joseph Doe, a miller from Terling in Essex. Once Ernest was old enough to work, he took his turn in the mill until his father felt that it was time for the boy to learn a trade of his own.

In March 1893, after Ernest had turned seventeen, Charles Doe arranged an apprenticeship for his son with the local blacksmith, Charles Wood, of Grays Farm in the nearby village of Hatfield Peverel. Wood’s blacksmith’s shop was at Ulting, a few miles south-east of Hatfield Peverel on the road to Maldon. The term of Ernest’s apprenticeship was four years, and his starting wage was six shillings per week.

The young apprentice evidently made an impression on his master, because when Wood wanted to retire five years later, he offered to lease the blacksmith’s shop to Ernest who took over the business with effect from 24 June 1898. Doe’s present depot at Ulting stands on the site of the original blacksmith’s shop, affectionately known locally as Doe’s Corner.

It was often said that Ernest Doe established a high reputation through ‘good, old-fashioned hard work and straight dealing’, leading to close connections with the local farmers, including James Havis of Southlands Farm, whose daughter he married in 1901. Ernest and his wife, Alice, had three sons, Ernest Charles, Hugh and Herbert Walter. As the business prospered, Ernest Doe bought the freehold of the blacksmith’s shop and acquired the neighbouring farm. He built a house, Hill View, next to the workshop in 1907.

Ernest Doe (third from the left) is seen shoeing a horse outside his blacksmith’s shop at Ulting in 1899. He had taken over the business the previous year and quickly established a good reputation for hard work and honest dealing.

All three of Ernest’s sons were expected to do their bit in the blacksmith’s shop, even while still at school. The eldest, Ernest Charles, was keenly interested in tractors and felt that they were the way forward for the future. He persuaded his father to attend the Ministry of Munitions disposal sales where they purchased second-hand Fordsons that had been used during the First World War and sold them on to local farmers.

The blacksmith’s shop at Ulting in 1908. Ernest Doe stands on the extreme right of the group. He both repaired machinery and acted as agent for a number of different makes of implements.

The major tractor trials were another source of inspiration; Ernest took his eldest son to the Lincoln trials in 1919 and again the following year. Ernest Charles wanted to buy the most powerful tractors at the trials, but his father curbed his enthusiasm and insisted that they would only consider the best. They were impressed with the performance of the cross-motor Case tractors, which were awarded a gold medal at the 1920 Aisthorpe trials, and wasted no time in securing an agency for these American machines.

The founder, Ernest Doe, who traded as the sole proprietor until Ernest Doe & Sons was formed in 1937. He remained senior partner of the firm until 1947.

An advertisement for Ernest Doe & Sons’ stand at the 1937 Essex Show. It serves to demonstrate the range of tractors and equipment handled by the firm at the time.

Ernest Charles married in 1927, and his son, Alan Ernest, was born two years later. The family business was flourishing and took on the agencies for Fordson and Allis-Chalmers tractors in 1930 and 1934 respectively. In 1937, Ernest Doe & Sons was formed with Ernest, Ernest Charles and Herbert as partners. The firm advertised itself as ‘The Tractor Specialists’ and held agencies for Case, Allis-Chalmers, Fowler, Fordson and Ransomes machines.

Doe’s Corner photographed from a field of Onward peas in April 1939. The original blacksmith’s shop can be seen on the right of the photograph, while the house on the left, Hill View, was built by Ernest Doe in 1906. The hanger in the centre formed the new workshop and had been acquired from the Eastern National bus company in Chelmsford after it became redundant when double-deckers were introduced.

The responsibility for running the firm fell increasingly to Ernest Charles, who also managed the tractor sales. In addition to the repair and retail side of the business, the partnership also offered an agricultural and industrial contracting service. This side was run by Herbert Doe while the third brother Hugh farmed both on his own account and with other land owned by the Doe family.

A Case LA in Ernest Doe & Sons’ yard in 1941. It was one of 240 new tractors sold by the firm that year. The old Peterbro, Alldays, IHC Mogul and Fiat tractors in the background were all scrapped as part of the war effort.

This Case machine was one of the first combines sold by Ernest Doe & Sons. The firm had held the Case agency since the 1920s, but by the Second World War it was also selling Allis-Chalmers, Fordson, Fowler, David Brown, Oliver, Caterpillar and Ransomes equipment. Ernest Charles Doe can just be seen to the right of the tractor driver.

The clamour for machinery to increase food production during the Second World War saw a further growth in Doe’s business. In 1941, the firm sold a total of 240 new tractors – 94 Fordson, 8 David Brown, 62 Allis-Chalmers, 51 Case, 12 Caterpillar, 12 Cleveland Cletrac and 1 Oliver 80. The same year, Ernest Charles even allowed his collection of fifty veteran tractors to be scrapped for the war effort.

To save petrol during the war, it was suggested that Essex be divided up into sections with each agricultural dealership operating in its own zone. This would seriously have affected Doe’s business and lost it many of the customers that it had outside its own area. To counter this, the firm opened branch depots at Fyfield and Colchester in 1943. The Fyfield branch began in buildings at Pickerells Farm that had belonged to the Doe family since 1939, while the Colchester premises was a former coal merchant’s yard. A third branch at Gosfield was added in 1945 and was acquired from a Mr Farleigh who made trailers from old lorry axles.

Doe became Massey-Harris agents and added harvesting equipment to its already impressive stock list. The Massey-Harris agency was an important franchise for the firm as it gave it the opportunity to sell the new Model 21 self-propelled combines. After the war, Doe bought a number of ex-government Allis-Chalmers HD crawlers and reconditioned them for sale to farms across the country. The firm also replaced the petrol-paraffin engines in a number of ex-ministry Caterpillar R4 crawlers with diesel power units.

Ernest Doe & Sons’ stand at the 1951 Royal Show. Left to right are a Fordson E27N...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.9.2015
• Verlagsort: Mount Joy
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Natur / Technik ► Fahrzeuge / Flugzeuge / Schiffe ► Nutzfahrzeuge
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Weitere Fachgebiete ► Land- / Forstwirtschaft / Fischerei
• ISBN-10: 1-912158-09-4 / 1912158094
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912158-09-6 / 9781912158096