29/11/2024
Back in the mid-1960s, the John Deere 5020 was one of the most powerful tractors on the British market. Dave Sole, who worked at Locksash Farm on Watergate Park Estate, near Chichester, was one of a handful of people who got to drive one in anger. The tractor he operated was supplied by John Deere dealer, Penfolds of Sidlesham in 1966/1967.
"It cost around £4000, which in those days was more or less the average price of a house," recalls Dave. "The owner also bought a seven-furrow John Deere high speed conventional plough, a John Deere 4m chisel plough, a 4m CT springtine cultivator, and a double hitch to go on the back of the tractor so it could pull two 3m combined drills, with two heavy sets of drags on the back.
"The first winter on the 5020 there was no cab on it so a lot of the time you were wrapped in sacks and oilskins to keep warm and reasonably dry," he adds. "But the following year we got a cab, a Fritzmeier, which you could take off in the summer, or you could just have the curved windscreen pushed open. It was a brilliant cab and very practical."
This 5020 stayed at Locksash Farm for about 10 years, recalls Dave. "It had its downsides as well as good. It was very heavy, so in wet conditions it tended to sink up to its axles in wet conditions on the clay land. It also used a lot of fuel, so when all the heavy work had been done she would be put in the shed for most of the summer. It was a joy to get back on her again when all the straw and stubble had been burnt, and kick up some black sooty dust, and go home covered in it.
"Locksash changed ownership in 1975, just as four-wheel drives were coming into use," says Dave. "The 5020, for all her horsepower and size, couldn't compete with four wheels digging into the ground, so sadly she was sold in a farm sale on 25/6/1975."
Happily, this John Deere 5020 survived into preservation in the UK and later formed part of the late Dave Hiscock's collection.
