Anyone who has worked or visited a farm in New Zealand or England, will have used or been familiar with the Ferguson “Little Grey Fergie” tractor. In fact, the tractor is a New Zealand farming icon – from ploughing paddocks, most are now retired to beaches and used to launch and retrieve fishing boats.
Officially named the Ferguson TEA-20, it was made by the Ferguson Company, in Conventry, England. The model name came from Tractor, England 20 Horsepower. More than 500,000 “Little Grey Fergies”, as they were affectionately known, were built between 1946 and 1956.
Some were even used on an expedition to the South Pole in 1958 by Sir Edmund Hilary.
The model on display at the museum was sold brand new to Dick Storey in 1953, by the Tractor Repair Company Ltd (TRC), in Feilding.
In 1993 it was traded back to TRC and subsequently restored and then displayed by TRC and gifted to the museum in 2017 by Bruce Brownlie, previous owner of TRC.
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